4O2 Evidence from Italy 



would not sound overdrawn in the society of that age, though it might 

 fall somewhat coldly upon modern ears. But the most notable point 

 in this oration is the nature of the remedy 1 for which the writer pleads, 

 and which none but the emperor can supply. It is simply to enforce 

 the existing law. Some years before, probably in 368, the emperor 

 Valens had strictly forbidden 2 the ' protections ' that were the cause of 

 this trouble. So now the appeal to Theodosius is * give the law sinews, 

 make it a law indeed 8 and not a bare exhortation.' For, if it is not to 

 be observed, it had better be repealed. That a leading writer of the 

 day could so state the case to the ruler of the Roman world is a fact 

 to be borne in mind by readers of the imperial laws. 



LIII. SYMMACHUS 



In passing on to Q. Aurelius Symmachus 4 (about 345-405) we 

 find ourselves in very different surroundings. The scene is in Italy, 

 and the author a man of the highest station in what was still regarded 

 as the true centre of the Roman world. He was praefectus urbi in 

 384-5, consul in 391, and the leading figure in Roman society and 

 literary circles. From the bulky collection of his letters, and the forty 

 reports (relationes) addressed to the emperor by him as city prefect, 

 we get much interesting evidence as to the condition of rural Italy 

 and the anxieties of the corn-supply of Rome. With his championship 

 of the old religion, by which he is best known, we have here nothing 

 to do; and his literary affectations, characteristic of most writers of 

 the later Empire, do not discredit him as a witness. A remarkable 

 feature of his letters is their general triviality and absence of direct 

 reference to the momentous events that were happening in many parts of 

 the empire. His attention is almost wholly absorbed by matters with 

 which he was immediately connected, his public duties, his private 

 affairs, the interests of his relatives and friends, or the exchange of 

 compliments. His time is mostly passed either in Rome or at one or 

 other of his numerous country seats : for he was one of the great land- 

 lords of his day, and the condition of Italian agriculture was of great 

 importance to him. As a representative of the landed interest and as 



56s dr) vevpa. T< j'o/.tw Kal iroLfjcrov afrrbv ws 6,\ijOws v6fj.ov avrl \f/t\rjs 

 yoplas... etc. 2 Cod Th XI 24 2 (Valens). 



3 Note that the law Cod Th XII i 128, sternly forbidding militares viri to interfere 

 with curiales or to use any violence to leading men in the municipalities, is dated 392 July 31. 

 Also that it is retained in Cod Just x 32 42. Zulueta de patrociniis vicorum pp 38-40 con- 

 cludes that it is uncertain to what emperor Libanius is appealing, and places the date in 

 386-9 AD. He finds the reference in Cod Th v 17 2 (Theodosius), not in xi 24 2. 



4 The leading authority on Symmachus is O Seeck. In particular the dating of many of 

 the letters in his great edition (MGH, Berlin 1883) is often helpful. 



