Symmachus

Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, c.340-c.402, held the offices of proconsol of Africa in 373, urban Prefect of Rome in 384 and 385, and consul in 391.

A prominent pagan, Symmachus was an opponent of Ambrosius, archbishop of Milan. He fought against the removal of the altar of Victory from the Senate House.

He was also engaged in the preparation of an edition of Livy's Ab Urbe Condita. This edition is the source of a series of subscriptions with his name found in some of the surviving texts of the first Decade -- and is thought to be the ancestor of one tradition of texts.

After the model of the Younger Pliny, the letters he had written to his numerous, influential friends were collected in ten books, which form a valuable source of historical information for the Roman Empire in the later fourth century. This collection inspired Sidonius Apollinaris to create a similar collection.