Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus


Quintus Fabius Memmius Symmachus was a politician of the Roman empire, member of the influential family of the Symmachi.

Biography

He was son of the orator and politician Quintus Aurelius Symmachus and of Rusticiana; he was born in 383/384. Memmius had an elder sister, Galla, who married Nicomachus Flavianus, son of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus.
At the age of ten, he became quaestor, celebrating the public games connected with his office in December 393. Memmius was well educated, and studied Greek language; his father approved his style in writing letters and, in 401, he studied with a Gallic rhetor as his tutor. The year 401 marked several important events in Memmius' life: he married the granddaughter of Virius Nicomachus Flavianus; he also celebrated the games connected with the second step in his cursus honorum, the office of praetor.
It was probably Memmius who, belonging to a family practicing the old Roman religion, built a temple devoted to Flora in Rome; he is also the author of a dedicatory inscription in honour of his father-in-law Flavianus. After Aurelius Symmachus' death, Memmius edited his correspondence.