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ORATORY AND EPISTOLOGRAPHY
as one of the recognized leaders of the senatorial class, whose support Theodosius
needed, saved him. He died after 402.
Such was the career of Symmachus. It should be noted that in fact he held
only three offices which involved any serious duties, and each for only about
a year. Otiwn was the way of life of the senatorial class, devoted to managing
their estates — whether energetically or languidly — and pursuing their dolce
vita of exquisite good taste, backed by a sure sense of social equalities and
distinctions. Political activity was an interruption of their life, not its main
content. This does not mean that when office interrupted their leisure they did
not take the duties of their posts seriously. As will be seen, Symmachus got
through a great deal of awkward paperwork in his year as Prefect of the City.
He is appreciated today principally for his letters. But during his lifetime he
enjoyed the reputation of being one of the greatest orators of his age. His
erudition was much admired, as was his care for the classics of Roman literature.
There are traces in later manuscripts of recensions of Virgil and Livy prepared
for him. Like many members of the senatorial class, whose spokesman he often
was, Symmachus was a pagan. He combined a Neoplatonizing monotheism
with an antiquarian regard for the traditional religion of the Roman state,
though he could not claim the deep and wide knowledge of sacred lore possessed
by his colleague and friend Vettius Agorius Praetextatus. It is one of the
curious ironies of history that it was the pagan Symmachus who recommended
Augustine for the chair of rhetoric in Milan.
Eight speeches by Symmachus survive in a palimpsest manuscript unfortunately
in a fragmentary state. 1 They include two panegyric addresses to
Valentinian delivered in 369 and 370, one to his young son and co-emperor
Gratian delivered in 369, two speeches delivered in the senate in 376 and voicing
the relief of the senators at the new political rapprochement between Senate and
emperor, the Pro Trygetio and the Pro patre, and three further speeches in the
senate on behalf of individuals. We know from his correspondence and elsewhere
of many other speeches delivered by Symmachus, and possibly gathered
together in a collected edition, which do not survive. Their style and manner
recall those of the Panegyrici Latini. The first three display the forced expressions
and occasional lapses of taste characteristic of the panegyric genre.
The letters, though intended by their author for publication, were not in fact
published until after his death, when his son brought out an edition in ten books
comprising some 900 letters written between 364 and 402. Book 10 consists of
the Relationes, the official reports sent by Symmachus as Prefect of the City to
the emperor Valentinian II. The model of Pliny's letters evidently prompted
the arrangement of those of Symmachus. The letters are not arranged chronologically,
but by addressee, and many of them are impossible to date. They have
1 Now divided into two parts, cod. Ambrosianus E 147 inf. and cod. Vaticanus latinus 5750.
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