He was the son of Gordianus, a Roman priest who had been slain during the riots in the days of Pope Symmachus ( term 498 – 514 ).

The Urban Prefect Aurelius Anicius Symmachus warned both parties to keep the peace, and wrote to the Emperor Honorius that Eulalius, who had been elected first and in due order, was in the right.

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Tatianus and Symmachus ( or, less frequently, year 1144 Ab urbe condita ).

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Symmachus and Boethius ( or, less frequently, year 1275 Ab urbe condita ).

At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Aetius and Symmachus ( or, less frequently, year 1199 Ab urbe condita ).

Saint Symmachus was pope from 498 to 514.

Symmachus was elected pope on 22 November 498 in the Constantinian basilica.

An investigation found the facts favored Symmachus and his election was recognized as proper.

Symmachus proceeded to call a synod, to be held at Rome on 1 March 499, which was attended by 72 bishops and all of the Roman clergy.

According to the account in the Liber Pontificalis, Symmachus bestowed the See on Laurentius " guided by sympathy ", but the " Laurentian Fragment " states that Laurentius " was severely threatened and cajoled, and forcibly despatched " to Nuceria.

The initial charge was that Symmachus celebrated Easter on the wrong date.

The session quickly deadlocked over the presence of a visiting bishop, for as Symmachus argued, the presence of a visiting bishop implied the See was vacant, and the See could only be vacant if he were guilty — which meant the case had already been decided before the evidence could be heard.

First the accusers introduced a document which included a clause stating that the king already knew Symmachus was guilty, and thus the synod should assume guilt, hear the evidence, then pass sentence.

More momentous was an attack by a mob on Pope Symmachus ' party as he set out to arrive at the synod: many of his supporters were injured and several — including the priests Gordianus and Dignissiums — killed.

The other was through diplomacy, which produced a sheaf of forged documents, the so-called " Symmachean forgeries ", of judgments in ecclesiastical law to support Symmachus ' claim that as pope he could not be called to account.

During the Laurentian schism, Hormisdas was one of the most prominent clerical partisans of Pope Symmachus.

" The schism had lingered on largely out of personal hatred to Symmachus ," writes Jeffrey Richards, " something with which Hormisdas was apparently not tainted.

At any rate, the wearing of the pallium was usual in the fifth century ; this is indicated by the above-mentioned reference contained in the life of St Marcus which dates from the beginning of the sixth century, as well as by the conferring of the pallium on St. Cæsarius of Arles by Pope Symmachus in 513.

In the Saturnalia of Macrobius, Servius appears as one of the interlocutors ; allusions in that work and a letter from Symmachus to Servius show that he was a pagan.

Established underneath the San Pacrazio basilica which was built by Pope Symmachus on the place where the body of the young martyr Saint Pancras, or Pancratius, had been buried.

However, his father died when Boethius was young, and he was adopted by another patrician, Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus.

Both Memmius Symmachus and Boethius were fluent in Greek, an increasingly rare skill at the time in the Western Empire, which has led some scholars to think that Boethius was educated in the East.

He not only refused to restore Victory to the senate-house, but extinguished the Sacred fire of the Vestals and vacated their temple: the senatorial protest was expressed in a letter by Quintus Aurelius Symmachus to the Western and Eastern emperors.

They were mentioned by Julius Caesar in his treatise, The Gallic Wars, and by 391 BC, they were written about by Roman Consul, Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, who received seven of them, " canes Scotici ", as a gift to be used for fighting lions, bears, that in his words, " all Rome viewed with wonder ".

Symmachus sent his police to occupy the Lateran, where Eulalius had established himself, and escorted him to a house outside the walls of Rome.

* Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, urban prefect of Rome, pleads for traditional cult practices.

* March 1 – During a synod in Rome, which is attended by 72 bishops and all of the Roman clergy, Pope Symmachus makes Antipope Laurentius bishop of the diocese of Nocera in Campania.

* November 22 – Anastasius is succeeded by Symmachus as the 51st pope, in the official papal selection in the Lateran Palace ( Rome ).

* July 19 – Pope Symmachus dies at Rome after a 16-year reign and is succeeded by Hormisdas as the 52nd pope.

* Quintus Aurelius Symmachus becomes urban prefect of Rome.

While a deacon in Rome, he is known to have been a partisan of the Antipope Laurentius, for in a libellus written to Pope Symmachus in 506, John confessed his error in opposing him, anathematized Peter of Altinum and Laurentius, and begged pardon of Symmachus.

Buoyed by this instruction, the pagan senators, led by Aurelius Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome, petitioned in 384 for the restoration of the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, which had been removed by Gratian in 382.

Valentinian, at the insistence of Ambrose, refused the request and, in so doing, rejected the traditions and rituals of pagan Rome to which Symmachus had appealed.

Symmachus sought to preserve the traditional religions of Rome at a time when the aristocracy was converting to Christianity, and led an unsuccessful delegation of protest against Gratian, when he ordered the Altar of Victory removed from the curia, the principal meeting place of the Roman Senate in the Forum Romanum.

As a representative of the political cursus honorum, Symmachus sought to preserve the ancient religion of Rome at a time when the senatorial aristocracy was converting to Christianity.

Two years later, Gratian was assassinated in Lugdunum, and Symmachus, now urban prefect of Rome, addressed an elaborate epistle to Gratian's successor, Valentinian II, in a famous dispatch that was rebutted by Ambrose, the bishop of Milan.

He returned to Rome 18 March to celebrate Easter Sunday, but this flouting of the Emperor's orders lost him the support of these two powerful individuals ; the inhabitants of Rome rioted, and the Urban prefect, Aurelius Anicius Symmachus, had his police occupy the Lateran, where Eulalius had made his base, and escort Eulalius out of the city to a house and kept under guard.

Finding himself victorious, Symmachus proceeded to call a synod held at Rome on March 1, 499, which was attended by 72 bishops and all of the Roman clergy, with the aim of confirming that his congregation accepted the king's judgment, as well as ensuring in the future there would be no rioting or illegal canvassing at election time.

But having gone to Ariminum, Symmachus fled the city in the middle of the night, returning to Rome where he took refuge in St. Peter's.

He belonged to the Symmachi, one of the richest and most influential senatorial families in Rome ; his father, Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, had been consul in 446.

After Gratian's death, Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, the Prefect of Rome and a Pagan, wrote to the new Emperor Valentinian II in 384 requesting the restoration of the Altar.