Quintus Aurelius Symmachus

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Wing of an ivory diptych with the inscription "SYMMACHORUM". The woman represents a priestess of Bacchus . The oak and the altar represent the cult of Jupiter .

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus ( signo Eusebius) (* around 342; † 402/403) was a non-Christian senator , consul and city ​​prefect in late ancient Rome . He is considered the most important Latin speaker of his time and has been compared to Cicero by contemporaries . However , Symmachus failed with his plea for religious tolerance in the dispute over the Victoria Altar , which Christians received literarily. Entanglement in political intrigues and partisanship for the usurpations against Emperor Theodosius forced him to increasingly stay away from politics.

Particularly in the last years of his life, Symmachus devoted himself to philology and editing, which established a tradition. Thanks to his extensive correspondence from the years 365 to 402, his life for a non-Christian at the end of the fourth century is exceptionally well documented. As a major player in the Roman restoration movement in the west, Symmachus was judged very controversially after his death.

family

The Symmachi family had risen to the rank of senator under Constantine the Great . The father of Symmachus, Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus , was city ​​prefect of Rome from 364-365 and consul- designate for the year 377, which he no longer lived. Through him, the Symmachi family was related by marriage to the Nicomachi family, including Virius Nicomachus Flavianus . Symmachus was married to Rusticiana in 371 at the latest. From the marriage the son Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus, praetor in 401, emerged. Around the year 393 Nicomachus Flavianus the Younger married a daughter of Symmachus, on which occasion the ivory diptychs shown could have been made. The great-grandson of Symmachus was Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus , who wrote a now-lost “Roman History” around 520 and was the father-in-law of the philosopher Boëthius . The Anicii family, related to the Symmachi , also belonged to Pope Gregory the Great . The Symmachus family was very wealthy, and they owned three townhouses in Rome and one in Capua as well as 15 suburban villas in Italy, three of them in Rome.

Life

Under Valentinian and Gratian

Badly damaged wing with the inscription "NICOMACHORUM". The woman depicted is a priestess of Ceres . Her attributes come from the cult of Cybele .

Symmachus had a thorough training in Latin literature and rhetoric and showed an extraordinary talent in it. Symmachus 365 held his first municipal office. In 369 he received an order, unusual for his age, to travel to the court of Valentinian I in Trier on the occasion of the five-year jubilee of the imperial government in order to deliver a tax on behalf of the Senate . In front of Valentinian and his son, the still very young co-emperor Gratian , who had not yet visited Rome and had not yet made contact with the Senate, Symmachus gave three eulogies and was honored.

In Trier, Symmachus got to know Ausonius , who came from Burdigalia, ancient Bordeaux , where he held the post of professor of rhetoric at the time and is known as the poet of the Mosella , a poem about the Moselle . Of the letters from Symmachus that have survived, more than thirty are addressed to Ausonius, indicating a friendship. They give an insight into the cultivation of contacts between the old Roman senate nobility and the emerging provincial aristocracy. Ausonius, more outwardly a Christian, even dedicated the poem Griphus ternarii numeri to Symmachus , which in the context of a drinking party varies the number three metrically and thematically and is resolved with the verse: "Pay three times, the three number is the greatest, three times is the one God ! "

Another speech that Symmachus gave to Valentinian on the occasion of his third consulate in 370 was beneficial for his career. After he had returned to Rome in the same year, he was in charge of the proconsulate of Africa , the breadbasket of Rome and one of the most important provinces in the West from 373–374 . During this governorship, Symmachus supported the campaign of Flavius ​​Theodosius , the father of the later emperor, against the usurper Firmus , whereupon he wanted to pay tribute to Symmachus with the erection of an honorary statue, which was prevented by political envious people.

After the death of Valentinian I, Symmachus gave a speech Pro Trygetio in the Senate , which was received with great applause, since with his appreciation of the successor Gratian he alluded to the negative qualities of the late emperor. This rhetorical success prompted Symmachus to publish an edition of his speeches, which have been preserved in fragments on a palimpsest .

Since Ausonius had been appointed tutor of the young Gratian, there was a favorable political climate for the Symmachus family. Symmachus was chosen to read before the Senate a speech by Gratian in which the Senior Emperor of the West, recently acclaimed by his troops, set out his policy. The same honorary task was given to him on the occasion of the victory of Gratian over the Alamanni and of Theodosius I over the Goths in 379. However, the father of Symmachus, who had been designated consul of the year 377, died before he took office. Probably as a result of the loss, Symmachus stayed in the following years in seclusion on his country estates in Campania , and even at the invitation of Ausonius at his consulate he avoided entering Rome.

Symmachus in the dispute over the Victoria Altar

Coin with Victoria statue, minted by Augustus in memory of the victory against Mark Antony at Actium . Remnants of the base have been found.

See also: Dispute over the Victoria Altar

Constantius II issued a general ban on sacrifices in 356 and legally ordered the temples to be closed. A year later, the Emperor visited Rome and was impressed by the city's public buildings, and with consideration for the non-Christian majority in the Senate, he renewed some of the privileges of urban Roman traditions. However, he had the altar of Victoria removed from the Senate building, which Augustus had consecrated there and which was considered a symbol of Rome's military strength. The emperor Julian (361–363) who had fallen away from Christianity had it set up again. The conflict was in the context of the general extinction of ancient Roman traditions: the last dedicatory inscription in a non-Christian religious monument, placed by a city Roman official, dates from 367/8. It shows that Vettius Agorius Praetextatus , who belonged to the circle of Symmachus, had the Porticus Deorum Consentium and its images with Roman deities restored in the Roman Forum .

Symmachus was a member of the college of priests, which investigated the accusation of the chastity offense against the Vestal Virgin Primigenia and recommended a condemnation "according to the custom of the ancestors", including the burial of the Vestal virgin at the Porta Collina and the execution of the lover by scourging understood in the Roman Forum . However, the condemnation and execution of the sentence by the Roman state are unlikely to have come about for political reasons. The last message from a vestal virgin presumably already emeritus comes from the year 394. The Christian poet Prudentius described in a polemical pamphlet the love life of the Vestal Virgins, who had been dismissed from their 30-year service, which Ambrosius had already reprimanded in contrast to Christian nuns : "She wears her withered folds to the wedding camp and, as a newlywed, learns to get hot in a cold bed."

In 382, ​​Gratian stopped the state financial contributions to the Vesta cult and also had the Victoria Altar removed from the curia again. An embassy formed on the initiative of the Praetextatus and led by Symmachus protested against the measures in 382, ​​but was turned away at the Milanese court. Although Symmachus had been banished from Rome because of his protest, he managed to return politically after Gratian's death in 383 and was elected city prefect in 384. Since the successor in the imperial office, Gratian's underage brother Valentinian II , seemed to be influenced, Symmachus wrote the third relatio to the emperor this year , in which he asked for the restoration of the Victoria Altar and also for state money for the Vestacult. The petition was imitated by Christian opponents in extensive refutations, especially the Rome Prosopopoiia : Symmachus, Third Relatio 9-10

Romam nunc putemus adsistere atque his vobiscum agere sermonibus: optimi principum, patres patriae, reveremini annos meos, in quos me pius ritus adduxit! utar caerimoniis avitis; neque enim paenitet. vivam meo more, quia libera sum! hic cultus in leges meas orbem redegit, haec sacra Hannibalem a moenibus, a Capitolio Senonas reppulerunt. ad hoc ergo servata sum, ut longaeva reprehendar? Videro, quale sit, quod instituendum putatur; sera tamen et contumeliosa emendatio senectutis. ergo diis patriis, diis indigetibus pacem rogamus. aequum est, quidquid omnes colunt, unum putari. eadem spectamus astra, commune caelum est, idem nos mundus involvit. quid interest, qua quisque prudentia verum requirat? uno itinere non potest perveniri ad tam grande secretum. Sed haec otiosorum disputatio est. Nunc preces, non certamina offerimus.
“Let us imagine that the goddess Rome was present and spoke to you: Most honorable emperors, fathers of the fatherland, are in awe of my age, at which my observance of religious custom made me come! Let me celebrate the ancestral ceremonies, for this is not a sin. Let me live according to my tradition as I was born free! This religion has subjected the world to my laws, Hannibal repelled these holy customs from the walls of the city, the Gauls from the Capitol. Was I then saved so that I might be put back in my old days? I shall soon see the nature of the measures considered necessary; but the mending of my age comes late and is shameful. Therefore we ask for peace for the gods of the fathers and the gods of the homeland. It is fair to understand the goal of individual religious practice as a unity. We look up to the same stars, the sky is common to us, the same universe surrounds us. What does it matter under which system everyone searches the truth? One cannot discern such a sublime mystery in one path alone. But this would be an academic discussion. In the current situation, we bring requests, not issues. "

Due to the influence of Ambrose, the archbishop of Milan and an important doctor of the church, Symmachus' request was rejected. Ambrosius spontaneously wrote a letter (no. 17) in which he discussed the situation without knowing the petition of Symmachus and threatened Valentinian with excommunication , since Victoria, like all non-Christian gods, is a demon : “Because redemption can only be guaranteed if everyone truly worships the true God, that is the God of Christians, by whom all things are ruled; for He alone is the true God, who is to be worshiped in the depths of the understanding; for 'the gods of the heathen are demons', as the Holy Scriptures say. ”Later he wrote another letter (No. 18), which is an argumentative refutation of Symmachus' petition, but is considered rhetorically weaker.

Withdrawal from the office of the city prefect

Symmachus resigned from the office of city prefect in 385. As recently as 384, his Christian opponents pushed Symmachus into an investigation into the theft of temples and art in the city of Rome and at the same time persuaded Valentinian not only to release the temple robbers from custody, but also Symmachus through a publicly posted edict for his repressive course to warn. Symmachus had managed to defend himself against the accusations made by means of a memorandum to the emperor, but this triumph was short-lived. Because after the death of Praetextatus, who was designated as consul for the year 385, Symmachus saw himself helplessly exposed to the intrigues of his opponents and asked Valentinian for his release, which he was refused. Only after his opponents filed a criminal complaint against the wife of Symmachus and insidiously sued a friend who was a public official, Symmachus left the city and went to his country estate in Campania. Also Virius Nicomachus Flavianus had recently temporarily retreated into private life. The relations of Symmachus handed down by his Christian opponents all come from the time of his city prefecture.

The rhetorical reputation of Symmachus must nonetheless have been recognized throughout Italy. The city of Milan appointed him in 384 to head an appointment committee for a rhetoric chair. Symmachus opted for the candidate Augustine , who at the time was a follower of Mani's teachings , was a private lecturer in financial difficulties in Rome and gave up the position after his conversion. The Roman Senate awarded Symmachus the honorary title of princeps senatus ("First of the Senate"), and Valentinian himself invited Symmachus to a speech on the occasion of his third consulate.

Under Theodosius

It was precisely this recognition of his rhetorical skills that would have momentous consequences for Symmachus. In honor of Magnus Maximus , who had already revolted against Gratian and invaded Italy in 387, Symmachus presumably gave an eulogy in 388 on behalf of the Senate. Theodosius I , who had been senior emperor in the east of the empire since 383, soon defeated the usurper and had Valentinian reinstated in office. Symmachus, who had sought asylum in a Christian church on this matter , escaped execution for crimes of majesty due to the intercession of the Novatian bishop Leontius . Symmachus himself wrote a defensive pamphlet that was also an eulogy for his savior, Emperor Theodosius.

The resetting of Symmachus was short-lived, especially since Nicomachus Flavianus was appointed Praetorian Prefect by Theodosius in 390 , the highest civil post in the late Roman Empire. He received official invitations from Rome and from Theodosius personally and accepted his designation to the consulate of 391 himself in Rome. After spending the winter preparing plays for his consulate, Symmachus went to the court of Theodosius in Milan in early 391 to thank him personally for his promotion. Shortly before, a Senate delegation had demanded the restoration of the Victoria Altar, which Theodosius refused after some misgivings. Symmachus also gave an eulogy to Theodosius, which he used to address concerns of the non-Christian senators. When the emperor, who had submitted to Ambrose after the Thessaloniki massacre , heard the speech, out of anger he had Symmachus spend the same day in an unpadded coach from Milan and forbade him to come within 100 miles of the courtyard.

At the same time, Theodosius issued bans against sacrifice, temple attendance and pagan religious practice. As a result, temples were occasionally destroyed. The Christian Rufinus of Aquileia wrote: "The cult of pagan images, which has been abandoned and destroyed since the politics of Constantine and his descendants, collapsed under the government of Theodosius." In the east from around 380, in the west from 393 in the Christianized the temples and statues of the underprivileged religious communities, whose followers are likely to have made up about half of the imperial population, destroyed or desecrated, their books burned and sacred trees cut down.

While Theodosius continued to consider the non-Christian senators in the allocation of offices, he hoped in Rome that they would support his policy, which he would soon be denied. It is true that a senatorial embassy that wanted to bring its non-Christian concerns to the court of Valentinian in Trier in 392 met with just as little favor as Symmachus had received from Theodosius. But the political situation changed fundamentally with the death of Valentinian, who is said to have been murdered or driven to suicide by his non-Christian army master Arbogast . In May Eugenius was promoted to emperor, who was a rhetoric professor and a tepid Christian and, after Theodosius and Ambrosius behaved evasively, found the support of the non-Christian senators.

Since the letters of Symmachus from this time were withheld when the collection of letters was published, only the plan for gladiatorial games in 393, which the Christians rejected , is known about his political role . Apparently, Symmachus held back politically at this time. Perhaps he remembered the consequences of the failed usurpation of Magnus Maximus, especially since Symmachus was more cautious than Nicomachus Flavianus on religious issues; he maintained good relations with Christians, such as the respected Senator Sextus Petronius Probus . At the same time, Nicomachus Flavianus, in his office as Praetorian prefect, took a leading role in the Senate faction occupied for Eugenius and was thus able to successfully propose his own son and the son of Symmachus for promotions at the court of Eugenius. In order to strengthen the ties between the families, his son, Nicomachus Flavianus the Younger, married a daughter of Symmachus. Nicomachus Flavianus the Elder committed suicide when Theodosius destroyed Eugenius' army in the Battle of Frigidus in early September 394 .

With this victory, Christianity had finally triumphed, and Theodosius became the last emperor in history to gain sole rulership over the empire. However, after his victory against Eugenius, he again exercised leniency and decreed an amnesty for his senatorial supporters. Symmachus stood up personally for his son-in-law, the younger Nicomachus, who only lost his office as city prefect, which Eugenius had given him, on condition that he would convert.

The last few years

Mourning for the fate of political friends and concerns about the imperial favor prompted Symmachus to temporarily suspend his correspondence following the defeat of Eugenius. But his reluctance changed when, while Theodosius was still alive, the memory of Nicomachus Flavianus was excluded from the already decided extinction . After the death of Theodosius in 395, Symmachus asked friends of the magistrates for debt relief for the descendants of Nicomachus Flavianus, who had to repay all the income that the Praetorian prefect had collected on behalf of the usurper Eugenius, which now threatened to ruin the family.

In the autumn of that year, Symmachus was appointed to the Roman Senate on behalf of the city prefect to arbitrate the composition of an embassy that was supposed to ask the son of Theodosius and emperor in the west Honorius for assistance after the rebellious comes Africae , Gildo , Italy cut off from the grain supply. When he arrived in Rome, Symmachus described that an uprising of the population was to be expected every day, that many aristocrats fled to the country and that he himself feared for the fate of his son. Symmachus appeased the anger of the population by organizing food reserves, but was unable to agree the Senate on the question of the composition of the legation before the arrival of the army master Stilicho .

In the years after his retreat from Rome in the spring of 396, Symmachus was attacked by various diseases, and the condition of his relatives, which was always critical, had a negative effect on his mental state. Nevertheless, he took part in important Senate meetings and was appointed in 397 as a mediator in the conflict between the Theodosius sons and emperors in the east and west, Arcadius and Honorius, which was stoked by Gildo when he resigned Arcadius. Following the recommendation of Symmachus, the Senate declared Gildo an enemy of the state and pronounced the declaration of war that divided Symmachus with the Senate and the urban Roman population, who abhorred this war.

Kontorniat, late 4th century. On the obverse Emperor Trajan , on the reverse the goddesses Annona and Ceres with attributes of the field crop.

But even when the younger Nicomachus warned that his political enemies were inciting the population to use violence against him, Symmachus refused to leave Rome for good, but stayed more often in his suburban villas. It was only when the uprising broke out that Symmachus fled to his villa in Ostia - where a few days later he received a letter from the city prefect with his recall, as the rebels had already regretted the violence and demanded games. After demonstratively delaying his answer for a short time, Symmachus actually returned to Rome and spent most of the year 398 in the Eternal City.

As the anonymous polemical writings against non-Christian senators show, there was a long-term conflict between the two factions. The large numbers of known Kontorniaten , coin-like issues from around 355 to 410, are interpreted as evidence of an underground opposition on the part of the non-Christian Senate aristocracy. On the obverse, they show particularly ancient Roman and anti-Christian emperors and on the reverse, non-Christian gods and writers.

In 399 Symmachus declined an invitation from Stilicho to the court of Honorius, and from that time on he devoted himself to his studies. Probably in the year 401 the son of Symmachus married the daughter of the younger Nicomachus. The exact date of death of Symmachus is not known, but the last date mentioned in his letters is the year 402, when he had to break off an embassy trip to Milan due to illness; he could therefore have died this year. An honorary inscription placed by his son for Symmachus reads: "Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, vir clarissimus , quaestor , praetor , higher priest, [...] proconsul of Africa , city prefect, ordinary consul, highly learned speaker".

effect

The "Symmachuskreis"

Around 401, Symmachus mentioned in a letter that he was working on a complete edition of the 142-volume work on the history of the Roman Republic by Titus Livius . Copies of the original subscriptions for the first decade have been preserved. The following entry can be found at the end of each book:

" Victorianus vc emendabam domnis Symmachis "

"I, Victorianus, vir clarissismus, was busy with the improvement on behalf of the Symmachus family"

The Vergilius Vaticanus , an edition of Virgil's Aeneid and perhaps the oldest surviving book, was produced by members of the so-called Symmachus group.

It is also known about the author of the subscription, Victorianus, that he published a copy of Philostratus' biography about the Greek miracle worker Apollonios of Tyana , which was considered to compete with the canonical Gospels about Jesus of Nazareth . The tradition of Livy is based on the edition of Symmachus, the original of which has, however, been lost. In the Verona Palimpsest , a text that was created around the same time, but independently, has been preserved, which does not contribute to improving the text. The philological work in the house of Symmachus can therefore be assessed as careful.

Other senators continued this tradition in the so-called Symmachuskreis. Nicomachus Dexter and Virius Nicomachus Flavianus produced copies of the Livius Edition. In addition, Quintilian , Cornelius Nepos , Persius , Martial , Juvenal and Apuleius were preserved in this way . Even after the descendants of these senators converted to Christianity, other authors were saved, as can be seen from the fate of the manuscripts of Horace , Virgil , Pomponius Mela , Valerius Maximus , Caesar , Plautus , Terenz and Sallust . The practice of these subscriptions continued until the middle of the 6th century. They do not show any opposition to Christianity, but rather show a participation of Christians. The quality of the copywriting of these editions later declined sharply. Alexander Demandt wrote: "The threads of tradition are thin, and yet all further developments depend on them."

Macrobius , who could have lived a generation after Symmachus, described this endeavor for classical education in the Saturnalia . Macrobius also handed down excerpts from Cicero's work "About the State" in the Middle Ages (The "Dream of Scipio"). Similar to how Cicero had honored the Scipions' circle as the beginning of Latin scholarship, Macrobius had Symmachus Praetextatus and Nicomachus Flavianus appear as witnesses of former Roman greatness.

Apart from the writings of Symmachus, only the titles of the independent literary activities of the non-Christian senators are known. Nicomachus Flavianus probably wrote a historical work during his city prefecture, "Annals", which was dedicated to Theodosius and which was possibly used by Ammianus Marcellinus . Flavianus also had a copy made of the above-mentioned biography of Apollonios of Tyana (not a Latin translation, as was often assumed in older research). Praetextatus translated Paraphrases of Themistius from a work by Aristotle that is now lost .

Ancient judgments

The senator and most important Christian poet of antiquity, Prudentius , who had been trained in classical writings and even showed sympathy for the apostate Emperor Julian (361-363), wrote the polemical two books after 402 “Against Symmachus, who defends idol worship ". It is a Christian poem in the form of a classical epic , which processes the main arguments of Symmachus and the extended Christian replies into verses. Prudentius expresses his appreciation for its rhetorical reputation, but also uses the usual polemics of Christian authors in the Latin West. He calls it: "O tongue, flowing from the wonderful fountain of words, ornament of Roman rhetoric, which is inferior even to Tullius [Cicero], and to whom eloquence has given these rich pearls". But since he does not praise God, he is a serpent who produces hideous monsters and pollutes the pure word with sin. He also asks the “Redeemer of the Roman people” that they should not burn in the middle of (hell) fire. And: "May his book be preserved undamaged, his excellent work retain the fame it has acquired through the flash of its language."

In addition, Symmachus is mentioned in the 5th century in the fragments of Olympiodoros of Thebes as well as by the Christian church historian Socrates Scholastikos and in the 6th century by Cassiodorus , who quoted Socrates Scholastikos. Sidonius Apollinaris placed him at the side of Pliny the Younger in the 5th century and names him in the same breath as Hortensius , Cicero and Apuleius .

Fonts

Codex Bobiensis. This page contains an extract from Ciceros De republica

Although Symmachus was considered the most important speaker of his time, his speeches were not mentioned until the beginning of the 19th century. Angelo Mai , who had specialized in palimpsest finds and thus became famous in professional circles, found the eight remaining fragments in 1815 in the most important palimpsest, the Codex Bobiensis , which also contains a unique specimen from Ciceros de re publica , in the library of the Vatican. The speeches of Symmachus had been deleted in the 7th century and overwritten with a copy of the acts of the Council of Chalcedon . By applying chemicals to the Codex to restore the older script, Mai changed the script permanently and damaged the Codex. Symmachus' speeches give an insight into the political climate at the time of the Valentinian dynasty.

Symmachus did not intend to publish his most famous work, the third relatio to the dispute over the Victoria Altar, instead it was included in Ambrose's collection of letters together with the replicas of Ambrosius and passed on with it. In addition, the copyist added the original quotations from the Symmachus script to some copies of Prudentius' counter-writ. Finally, it was included in the appendix of the collection of letters together with the total of 49 often short relations of Symmachus from the time of his city prefecture. The copy of Ambrosius is the most valuable source for the production of the text.

The letters of Symmachus were published by his son in ten books and have survived except for a few gaps. The oldest surviving and best codex is Parisinus 8623 from the 9th century, which is also the only one to contain continuous titles, with the opening and closing pages missing. Among the more recent codices, the Vaticanus Palatinus 1576 from the 11th century offers the best text quality, as well as four Florilegia from the 13th century. Three letters addressed to Ausonius are also preserved in his letter collection.

The collection of letters from Symmachus, based on Pliny’s art letters , inspired Sidonius Apollinaris to publish a similar collection of letters. In view of the loss of literature, the letters of Symmachus are a valuable source of historical information on the Roman Empire of the late 4th century , although they are often viewed as disappointing due to their empty content with regard to explosive political entanglements. Herbert Bloch assumes that the edition of the Letters of Symmachus appeared in a censored form, due to the family's involvement in the usurpation of Eugenius and their close relationship with Nicomachus Flavianus. In 383 Symmachus wrote in a letter "to his brother Flavianus":

" Dehinc praesens status non sapientiam sed fortunam requirit. defectum annonae timemus pulsis omnibus, quos exerto et pleno urb Roma susceperat. fac, ut his remediis convalescamus: quanto nobis odio provinciarum constat ista securitas! dii patri, facite gratiam neglectorum sacrorum! miseram famem pellite! quamprimum revocet urbs nostra, quos invita dimisit! plura tecum loqui, quam necesse est, de adversis communibus non libet. "

“So the current state of the state demands not philosophy, but wealth. We fear an interruption in the grain supply after all the people whom Rome once nourished with its rich and full breasts have been driven out. Oh, that we could recover from these remedies! How great is the hatred of the provinces against us, to whom we owe such security! You gods of our fathers, be gracious to the neglect of what is consecrated to you! Drive away this wretched famine! May our city soon call back the people it has violated against their will! I shouldn't talk to you about the common misfortune more than is absolutely necessary. "

The third book of the collection of letters contains seven letters addressed to Naucellius, who lived near the house of Symmachus on the Caelius . In it Symmachus mentions a carminum tuorum codicem ("a book with your poems"). According to Symmachus, Naucellius is also said to have translated a Greek work on earlier Roman history into Latin. Poems by Naucellius were discovered in an epigram compilation in the 15th century in the Bobbio monastery and preserved in a humanist copy, which is published as Epigrammata Bobiensia . This collection describes the literary interests of the Symmachus circle and also contains a collection of quotes from classical authors by Arusianus Messius , in which quotations from Symmachus have been handed down.

Research Opinions

The historical person of Symmachus, her literary achievements and the circumstances surrounding her have been assessed differently. Recent studies are particularly interested in the political biography of Symmachus. Otto Seeck († 1921), who published the writings of Symmachus, called the third relatio of Symmachus in his "History of the Fall of the Ancient World" the "swan song of a dying religion". In a lecture from 1959 Herbert Bloch saw the non-Christian resistance of Symmachus and his circle closely linked to the survival of Roman literature and judged: “There was no more momentous breakdown in the history of mankind than that caused by the end of the ancient world and the last Struggle between paganism and Christianity. "The classical philologist and historian Alan Cameron published a reply to the work of Bloch in 1984, in which he described them as" the predominant view [...], the most influential and best known standard representations ", which however," extravagant claim ”because he himself could not see any connection between editing and religious opposition. Cameron also emphasized this basic idea in a comprehensive new study, according to which there was also no question of a “pagan revival” during this period.

Jelle Wytzes came to a decidedly negative view of the intellectual achievements of Symmachus and his circle in his 1977 book “The Last Struggle of Paganism in Rome”, which was based on his dissertation from 1936: “It is clear that Symmachus and his people did not understand their time and overestimated their importance for the existence and continued existence of the empire. [...] You shouldn't blame them for the fact that their intellectual life was not exactly on a high level. […] Here a culture is on its last legs. The tendency towards the old led into a spiritual morass. "

Richard Klein , an expert in intellectual history of late antiquity, pointed out the opportunism of Symmachus, for example in relation to Valentinian I, whom he glorified in speeches during his lifetime and criticized after his death, as well as his reaction to the dejected usurpation of Magnus Maximus. Klein attributed the religious dissidence of Symmachus not to spiritual conviction, but to an awareness of tradition. Symmachus was “a tragic figure” who failed in the field of tension between a religion that he no longer believed in and an alternative that he could not accept: “The question arises as to why such a highly educated man is still in the fourth century wants to hold onto a form of belief that he himself is convinced of the rigidity and uselessness of which. […] With the Christians, however, he mostly felt a repulsive intolerance and a devaluation of history and the state as well as a misunderstanding of the cultural and civilizing achievement of Rome. He can therefore join them all the less. "

expenditure

  • Otto Seeck (Ed.): Q. Aurelii Symmachi quae supersunt (= Monumenta Germaniae Historica , Auctores antiquissimi Volume 6, 1.). Weidmann, Berlin 1883. Unchanged reprint Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Munich 1984, ISBN 3-921575-19-2 .
  • Angela Pabst (Ed.): Speeches. Orationes ( Texts on Research. Volume 53). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1989, ISBN 3-534-02247-5 .
  • Richard Klein : The dispute over the Victoria Altar. The third Relatio of Symmachus and the letters 17, 18 and 57 of the Milanese Bishop Ambrosius (= texts on research. Volume 7). Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1972, ISBN 3-534-05169-6 .

literature

Overview representations

Overall presentations and investigations

  • Herbert Bloch : The Pagan Revival in the West at the End of the Fourth Century. In: Arnaldo Momigliano (Ed.): The Conflict Between Paganism and Christianity in the Fourth Century. Clarendon Press, Oxford 1963, pp. 193-218.
  • Alan Cameron : The Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford University Press, Oxford et al. 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-974727-6 .
  • Richard Klein : Symmachus. A tragic figure of the end of paganism (= impulses of research , volume 2). 2nd Edition. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1986, ISBN 3-534-04928-4
  • Cristiana Sogno: Q. Aurelius Symmachus. A political biography. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor 2006, ISBN 0-472-11529-4 .
  • Jelle Wytzes: The last battle of paganism in Rome (= Études préliminaires aux religions orientales dans l'Empire romain , volume 56). Brill, Leiden 1977, ISBN 90-04-04786-7 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ CIL 6, 1699
  2. ↑ Sidonius Apollinaris , Letter 2:10. On the dating Seeck (1883), p. XLIXf.
  3. ↑ Seeck (1883), p. XLVf.
  4. ↑ Pabst (1989), p. 1; Symmachus, letters 9, 88, 3 online . General information on biography: fundamentally the preliminary remarks in the MGH edition by Seeck (1883 online ); Klein (1971); Jones et al. a., Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire Vol. 1, pp. 865ff .; Sogno (2006).
  5. ↑ Codex Theodosianus 8, 5, 25: corrector Lucaniae et Brittiorum .
  6. ↑ See Hagit Sivan: Ausonius of Bordeaux. Genesis of a Gallic Aristocracy . New York 1993, especially p. 111ff.
  7. ^ Ausonius, Griphus ternarii numeri ( online ).
  8. ↑ Seeck (1883), p. XLVIII.
  9. ^ In addition to Gratian, his half-brother Valentinian II was formally emperor in the west. However, due to his young age, he was unable to fill this role.
  10. ↑ Although Theodosius could not have a decisive military impact on the Goths. It was not until 382 that there was a contractual settlement with the Goths, who were then settled as federates on the lower Danube .
  11. ↑ Seeck (1883), p. X, LIIf.
  12. ↑ Codex Theodosianus 16,10,4 and 6.
  13. ↑ Ammianus Marcellinus 16, 10. Bloch (1963), p. 194.
  14. ^ CIL VI, 102 = Hermann Dessau , Inscriptiones Latinae selectae 4003.
  15. ^ Symmachus, Letter 8, 147f. on-line
  16. ↑ See José Carlos Saquete: Las vírgines vestales, un sacerdocio femenino en la Religón pública romana . Madrid 2000, p. 103.
  17. ^ Hermann Dessau , Inscriptiones Latinae selectae 4151; Zosimos 5, 38, 3.
  18. ↑ Prudentius, Against Symmachus 2, 1084f.
  19. ↑ On the dispute about the Victoria Altar Klein (1972) and (1971), especially p. 76ff.
  20. ↑ On the person of Ambrosius: Ernst Dassmann : Ambrosius von Milano. Life and work . Stuttgart 2004. On the Christianization of the Roman upper class and the Senate: Michele R. Salzman: The Making of a Christian Aristocracy: Social and Religious Change in the Western Roman Empire . Cambridge, MA 2002, inter alia p. 65ff.
  21. ↑ Ambrosius, Letter 17,1: Aliter enim salus tuta esse non poterit, nisi unusquisque Deum verum, hoc est, Deum christianorum, a quo cuncta reguntur, veraciter colat; ipse enim solus verus est Deus, qui intima mente veneretur: Dii enim gentium daemonia, sicut Scriptura dicit (Psal. XCV, 5). See JHWG Liebeschuetz : Ambrose of Milan: Political Letters and Speeches . Liverpool 2005, p. 27ff.
  22. ^ Raffaele Argenio: Il Contra Symmachum di Prudenzio fu uno scritto di attualità? , in: Rivista di Studi Classici 16 (1968), pp. 155–163 discusses the literary quality of these two writings.
  23. ^ Symmachus, Letter 10, 21.
  24. ↑ Seeck (1883), p. LVI.
  25. ↑ Augustine, Confessions 5, 22f.
  26. ^ Symmachus, Letters 3, 52 and 63.
  27. ↑ Socrates Scholasticus 5:14 .
  28. ^ Prosper Tiro of Aquitaine , de promissionibus dei 3, 38, 2.
  29. ↑ Codex Theodosianus 16, 10, 10-12. On Theodosius cf. Leppin (2003).
  30. ↑ Rufinus, Commentary on the Church History of Eusebius 2, 19.
  31. ↑ Hartwin Brandt : Interpreted Reality? Late antique saints' lives, pagan reality and classical tradition . In: ders. (Ed.): Interpretation of reality. Crises, realities, interpretations (3rd – 6th centuries AD) . Stuttgart 1999 (Historia Einzelschriften 134), pp. 125–140, here 127f.
  32. ↑ Johannes Hahn: Violence and religious conflict. The clashes between Christians, Gentiles and Jews in the east of the Roman Empire (from Constantine to Theodosius II) . Berlin 2004 (Klio Beihefte, NF, Vol. 8); Eberhard Sauer: The Archeology of Religious Hatred in the Roman and Early Medieval World . Stroud 2003.
  33. ↑ Alexander Demandt: The late antiquity. 2nd edition Munich 2007, p. 406; Horst Blanck : Das Buch in der Antike , Munich 1992, p. 132; Friedrich Prinz , Europe's intellectual beginnings , in: Die Zeit, online (especially the section: “Let's go back again…”: “Church selection mechanisms […] that have been in place since Emperor Theodosius the Great (347–395) to the active annihilation of great Libraries with pagan literature went. ”).
  34. ↑ See Leppin (2003), pp. 144f., 205ff.
  35. ↑ Seeck (1883), p. 153, line 2; P. 237, line 29; P. 255, line 13; P. 257, line 25. CIL VI, 1783 .
  36. ↑ Seeck (1883), pp. LXX-LXXIII.
  37. ^ Compilation in Brian Croke, Jill Harries (Ed.): Religious Conflict in Fourth-Century Rome. A Documentary Study . Sydney, Australia 1982.
  38. ^ Andreas Alföldi : Die Kontorniaten. A misunderstood means of propaganda of the urban Roman pagan aristocracy in their struggle against the Christian empire . 2nd edition, de Gruyter, Berlin 1976–1990. Against this interpretation: Peter Franz Mittag : Old heads in new hands. Author and function of the accountants . Habelt, Bonn 1999, ISBN 3-7749-2885-1 .
  39. ↑ Pabst (1989), p. 24.
  40. ^ CIL VI, 1699 , found in Rome on the Caelius .
  41. ^ Symmachus, Letter 9, 13.
  42. ↑ Bloch (1963), p. 215.
  43. ↑ Sidonius Apollinaris , epistulae 8, 3.
  44. ^ Elias Avery Lowe : Codices Latini Antiquiores , Vol. 4, Oxford 1947, # 499.
  45. ↑ Bloch (1963), p. 216.
  46. ↑ Alexander Demandt: The late antiquity. 2nd edition Munich 2007, p. 489f.
  47. ^ Leighton D. Reynolds and Nigel G. Wilson : Scribes and Scholars. A Guide to the Transmission of Greek and Latin Literature . 3rd ed. Oxford 1991, pp. 39-42. See Alan Cameron: The Latin Revival of the Fourth Century . In: Warren Treadgold (ed.): Renaissances before the Renaissance: Cultural Revivals of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages . Stanford 1984, pp. 42-58.
  48. ↑ Alexander Demandt: The late antiquity. 2nd edition Munich 2007, p. 492.
  49. ^ Alan Cameron: The Date and Identity of Macrobius . In: The Journal of Roman Studies 56 (1966), pp. 25-38 sees a possible identification of the writer, whose full name was Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, with a Theodosius, Praetorian prefect of Italy of the year 430. This assumption, however, supports the Christianity of Macrobius as a condition for admission to the office, which according to Cameron cannot be ruled out due to the works of Macrobius. It is also possible to identify with a Macrobius, Praetorian prefect of Spain from 399 to 400, who is mentioned in the Codex Theodosianus.
  50. ↑ Bloch (1963), pp. 208f.
  51. ↑ On the question of the alleged Philostratus translation, see Alan Cameron: Last Pagans of Rome. Oxford 2011, pp. 546ff.
  52. ^ Title after the earliest mention in Sidonius Apollinaris.
  53. ↑ On this, Ilona Opelt : The Polemics in Christian Latin Literature from Tertullian to Augustine . Heidelberg 1980. Cf. also Klein (1971), pp. 140–160, who elaborates the Christian idea of ​​Rome in Prudentius and emphasizes that Prudentius held Symmachus in high regard.
  54. ↑ Prudentius, Gegen Symmachus 1, 632-642.
  55. ↑ Prudentius, Against Symmachus 1, pr. 80 and 89.
  56. ^ Prudentius, Against Symmachus 1, 648f.
  57. ↑ Olympiodorus of Thebes at Photios c. 80 p. 63 A 40; Socrates Scholastikos, Church History 5, 14; Cassiodorus, Historia ecclesiastica tripartita 9, 23.
  58. ↑ Sidonius Apollinaris, Letters 1, 1, 1; 2, 10, 5.
  59. ↑ Sogno (2006), pp. 1f.
  60. ↑ On this, Pabst (1989).
  61. ↑ Seeck (1883), pp. XXVIIff. Recently Jean-Pierre Callu: “En marge des vieux livres: les manuscrits perdus de Symmaque”, in: ders. (Ed.): Culture profane et critique des sources de l'Antiquité Tardive . Rome 2006, pp. 27-49.
  62. ↑ Bloch (1963), p. 211.
  63. ^ Letter 2, 7, quoted from Otto Seeck, online ; Alexander Demandt: The late antiquity. 2nd edition Munich 2007, p. 499, refers to this letter.
  64. ^ Edition of the epigrams in Codex Vaticanus Latinus 2836 by Franco Munari , Rome 1955.
  65. ↑ Bloch (1963), pp. 211f.
  66. ↑ For example Sogno (2006). Review.
  67. ^ Otto Seeck, History of the Fall of the Ancient World , Vol. 5. Stuttgart 1920, p. 196.
  68. ↑ Bloch (1963), p. 193: There has been no more momentous breakdown in the history of mankind than the one which marks the end of the ancient world and the final conflict between paganism and Christianity, a conflict which culminates and comes to a dramatic conclusion at the end of the fourth century .
  69. ^ Alan Cameron: The Latin Revival of the Fourth Century . In: Warren Treadgold (ed.): Renaissances before the Renaissance: Cultural Revivals of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages . Stanford 1984, pp. 42–58, here p. 45: “ prevailing view […]. The standard accounts, the most influential and best known are by Herbert Bloch and Philip Levine ".
  70. ^ Alan Cameron: The Latin Revival of the Fourth Century. In: Warren Treadgold (ed.): Renaissances before the Renaissance: Cultural Revivals of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages. Stanford 1984, pp. 42-58, here p. 53: “ extravagant claim ”.
  71. ↑ Cameron (2011), summarized on p. 783ff.
  72. ↑ Wytzes (1977), pp. 131-132.
  73. ↑ Klein (1971), p. 163f.
This article was added to the list of excellent articles on November 25, 2007 in this version .
personal data
SURNAME Symmachus, Quintus Aurelius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Proconsul of Africa 373, Prefect of Rome (384–385), Consul 391
DATE OF BIRTH at 342
DATE OF DEATH 402 or 403