506.]

The Symmachus with whom we are now concerned was also an orator; and
we learn from this extract that he delivered a speech, evidently of
some importance, in the Senate, 'pro allecticiis.' There seems much
probability in Usener's contention that these 'allecticii' were men
who had been 'allecti,' or admitted by co-optation into the Senate
during the reign of Odovacar, and whom, on the downfall of that ruler,
it had been proposed to strip of their recently acquired dignity--a
proposal which seems to have been successfully resisted by Symmachus
and his friends.

Lastly, we learn that Symmachus, 'in imitation of his ancestors,' put
forth a Roman History in seven books. The expression for ancestors
(parentes) here used is thought by Usener to refer chiefly to Virius
Nicomachus Flavianus (Consul in 394[103]), whose granddaughter married
Q. Fabius Memmius Symmachus, and was the grandmother of our Symmachus.
This Flavianus, who was in his time one of the chief leaders of the
heathen party in the Senate, is spoken of in one inscription as
'historicus disertissimus;' and in another, mention is made of the
fact that he dedicated his annals to Theodosius.

[Footnote 103: See Usener, p. 29. The Consules Ordinarii for that year
were Arcadius and Honorius.]

Whether the elder Symmachus, the Pagan champion, was a historian as
well as an orator is a matter about which there is a good deal of
doubt. Jordanes twice quotes 'The History of Symmachus,' once as to
the elevation of the Emperor Maximin, and once as to his death[104].
Usener thinks that the 'Anecdoton Holderi' authorises us henceforward
to assign these quotations without doubt to the younger, Christian
Symmachus, not to his Pagan ancestor. To me the allusion to
_parentes_ (in the plural), whose industry as historians the Symmachus
there spoken of imitated, seems to make it at least as probable that
the earlier, not the later member of the family composed the history
which is here quoted by Jordanes.

[Footnote 104: Jordanes, Getica xv.: 'Nam, ut dicit Symmachus in
quinto suae historiae libro, Maximinus ... ab exercitus effectus est
imperator.' 'Occisus Aquileia a Puppione regnum reliquit Philippo;
quod nos huic nostro opusculo de Symmachi hystoria [sic] mutuavimus.']

[Sidenote: Information as to life of Boethius.]

II. We now pass on to consider the information furnished by this
fragment as to the illustrious son-in-law of Symmachus, Anicius
Manlius Severinus _B