Symmachus
QUINTUS AURELI- US, a Roman statesman of the 4th century, A. D., and one of the last great advocates of paganism; was educated in Gaul; and after serving as quæstor and prætor became Corrector of Lucania and the Brutii (365) and Proconsul of Africa (373), and member of the pontifical college. His petition to Gratian, urged on the senate's behalf, for the restoration of the altar of Victory, proved unavailing (382), as did the extant letter addressed by him when præfect of the city (384) to Valentinian. The failure led him to side with the pretender Maximus (387), and for so doing he was impeached of treason, but pardoned and raised to the consulship (391). His death must have taken place after 404, and we have by him 10 books of letters (1653), and fragments of 9 orations, the latter discovered and edited by Mai (1815). "Even saints," says Gibbons, "and polemic saints, treat Symmachus with respect," though Prudentius likened the use to which he applied his talents "to one digging in mud with an instrument of gold and ivory."