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 APPENDIX 483 Excerpta de Sententiis was copied down from this expurgated edition, and is not the work of Eunapius but is the editor's preface. Giildenpenning has attempted to explain the extraordinary fact that Zosimus does not even mention the greatest blot on the reign of Theodosius the Great — the massacre of Thessa- lonica — by supposing that he used the expurgated Eunapius. This seems hardly probable. The History (dyoi icrropiKo'i.) of the pagan Olyjipiodorus (of the Egyptian Thebes) in twenty-two books was a highly important work. It embraced eighteen years of contemporary history (a.d. 407-425). It is unluckily lost, but valuable fragments are preserved in the Bibliotheca of Photius (amongst others a curious account of the initiation of new students at the university of Athens, fr. 28). The work was used as a source by the somewhat later writers, Philostor- gius, Socrates, Sozomen, and later still by Zosimus, so that our historical material for the reign of Honorius and the first half of the reign of Theodosius ii. de- pends more largely on Olympiodorus than might be inferred from the extent of the Photian fragments. He himself described his work as material (uAt)) for history. He dedicated it to Theodosius ii. The most convenient edition of the fragments is that in Miiller's Fragmenta, Hist. Grajc, iv. p. 57 sqq. In the same place (69 sqq.) will be found the fragments of Priscus of Panium in Thrace, whose history probably began about a.d. 433 and ended at 474. The most famous is the account of his embassy to Hunland, but other very valuable notices from his work are preserved. So far as we can judge from these remains he was perhaps the best historian of the fifth century. Q. Aurelius Symmachus (of a rich but not an ancient family 2) was born not long after 340. The details of his career are rehearsed on the base of a statue which his son set up in his house : Q. Aur(elio) Symmacho v(iro)c(larissimo) quaest(ori) pret(ori) pontifici maiori, corrector! Lucaniae et Brittiorum, comiti ordinis tertii, procons(uli) Africae, praef(ecto) urb(i), co(nsuli) ordinario, oratori disertissimo, Q. Fab(ius) Memm(ius) Symmachus v(ir) c(larissimus) patri optimo. On the occasion of the quinquennalia of Valentinian (a.d. 309, Feb. 25) he carried the Senate's congratulations and auruin ohlaticium to the Emperor and jironounced panegyrics on Valentinian and Gratian, of which fragments remain (Or. i. and Or. iii., ed. Seeck, p. 318 and 330). He remained with the court, and accom- panied the Emperors on their Alamannic expedition in 369 (like Ausonius). He celebrated the campaign in a second panegyric in honour of Valentinian's third consulship, a.d. 370 (Orat. ii.). He was proconsul of Africa at the time of the jrevolt of Firmus (373-375). He was prefect of Rome in 384, and his apjjointment j)robably marks a revival of the pagan influence after Gratian's death.^ In the same year he drew up the celebrated third Rclatio to Theodosius for the restora- tion of the Altar of Victory, which had been removed by Gratian in 382. In 388, as the spokesman of the senate, he pronounced a panegyric on the tyrant Maximus, when he invaded Italy, and for this he was accused of treason on Valentinian's restoration, and with difiiculty escaped punishment. The Panegyric and the Apology to Theodosius which he wrote after his pardon are mentioned by Socrates (v. 14), but have not survived. In 391 he was consul, and took the occasion of a Eanegyric which he pronounced in the presence of Theodosius to recommend to im a petition which the Roman senate had recently preferred for the restoration of the Altar of Victory. The result is described by Gibbon (p. 191). Next year Symmachus made another unsuccessful attempt with Valentinian. He probably survived the year 404 (see below, p. 486). His works have been edited by Seeck (in M. G. H.). They consist of nine Books of Letters, and the Relationes (which used to be numbered as a tenth Book 2 His father, L. Aurelius Avianius Symm. (consul 330), was prefect of Rome in a.d. 364-5. Statues were set up to him both in Rome and Constantinople, as is recorded in an inscrip- tion, where the public offices which he held are enumerated. He was princeps senatus. C. I. L., 6, 1698. 3 For the Panegyric (a.d. 389) of Drepanius Latinus Pacatus, see p. 166.