Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose.
Memorial of Symmachus, the Prefect of the City.
Symmachus in the name of the heathen members of the
Senate asks that the Altar of Victory, which had been removed by
Gratian, should be restored in the Senate House, and that oaths should
be taken there as of old. He argues that the example of former
Emperors should be followed as to the things which they retained, not
which they abolished. Rome expects this of them, and no injury
can accrue to the treasury in consequence, whereas it is unjust to
confiscate legacies to the Vestal Virgins and ancient rites.
was a determined
move on the part of Symmachus, Prefect of the city, and other heathen
to regain the observances of their religion. He was perhaps the
leading man of the day at Rome, equally renowned as a statesman, a
scholar, and an orator. In 382 he
headed a deputation of the Senate to the Emperor Gratian to request the
replacement of the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, and the
restoration of their endowments to the Vestal Virgins and the colleges
of priests. There was a counterpetition on the part of the
Christian senators forwarded through Pope Damasus, and Gratian refused
to receive the deputation. In 384 the attempt was repeated, and
these letters or memorials have to do with this application to
Valentinian II., the brother of Gratian, who was now Emperor of the
West; this attempt was also foiled.
It would seem that he took part in missions for
the same purpose to Theodosius after the defeat of Maximus, and to
Valentinian II. in 392, and again
unsuccessfully. In the next year, Eugenius, who had been made
Emperor by Flavian and Arbogastes, restored the Altar of Victory, which
however was finally removed by Theodosius after the defeat of Eugenius
and Arbogastes. Probably Symmachus made a final attempt in 403 or
404, but fruitlessly. [See Dict. Christ. Biog. s.v. Symmachus.]
The statue and Altar of Victory in question had
been first removed by Constantius, son of Constantine, when at Rome, 356, but were restored by Julian with other heathen symbols and rites. Valentinian I. tolerated them, but possibly (at any rate for some time), as St. Ambrose says, did so in ignorance [Ep. XVII. 16]. They were once more removed by Gratian, and then the action of Symmachus comes in. It may be mentioned that though a heathen he was on intimate terms with Damasus, St. Ambrose, and many leading Christians.
The three Epistles or rather “Memorials” which follow refer to this part of the death-struggle of paganism.