Aurelii Symmachi Explained

The Aurelii Symmachi were an aristocratic senatorial family (gens) of the late Roman Empire.

The family received its first offices at the beginning of the 3rd century under emperor Septimius Severus. It further increased its prestige, reaching its peaks in the 4th and 5th centuries. Among the most important members of this family were:

• Aurelius Valerius Tullianus Symmachus, consul in 330
  • Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus, praefectus urbi in 364-365, son of Aurelius Valerius Tullianus Symmachus
• Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, c.340 - c.402, orator, consul in 391. Contemporaries considered him the best Latin orator of his age, similar to Cicero. He was the most influential of the Symmachi.
  • Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus, son of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
  • Aurelius Anicius Symmachus, nephew of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus
    • Quintus Aurelius Symmachus the Younger, consul in 446, son of Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus
      • Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, consul in 485, son of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus the Younger
      • Three daughters of Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus: Saint Galla, Proba, and Rusticiana, the first wife of Boethius^[1]
      • Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, adopted son of Quintus Aurelius Symmachus the Younger

The family had a noteworthy interest in literature, and its members were patrons, editors and historians.

• Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus wrote a few epigrams on members of the Constantinian administration and another unknown literary work
• Quintus Aurelius Symmachus wrote many letters, edited in ten volumes, five orations, three panegyrics and 49 relations for his office, among which the most famous is the third, written in order to request the restoration of the Altar of Victory; in the last part of his life he dedicated himself to philology.
• Quintus Aurelius Symmachus (consul 446), to whom Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius dedicated his De differentiis vel societatibus graeci latinique verbi.
• Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus wrote a Roman History in seven books (now lost), which was used as a source by Jordanes for his Romana; he also helped the publication of the Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis by Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, even editing directly the work.^[2] Priscian dedicated him some of his works.

Bibliography

• Arnold Hugh Martin Jones, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, "Q. Fabius Memmius Symmachus 10", The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, Cambridge University Press, 1971,, pp. 1046-1047.
• John Martindale, John Morris, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, vol. 2, Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp. 1044–1046.

Notes and References

1. A New Family Tree for Boethius. Parergon. 2006-01-01. 1832-8334. 1–9. 23. 1. 10.1353/pgn.2006.0082. John R. C.. Martyn.
2. Aurelius Memmius Symmachus v.c. emendabam vel distinguebam meum Ravennae cum Macrobio Plotino Euexodio, «I, Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, vir clarissimus, corrected and put punctuation to my copy in Ravenna together with Macrobius Plotinus Eudoxius, vir clarissimus» (Hedrick, Charles W., History and Silence, University of Texas Press, 2000,, p. 183).