Symmachus' Model: Varro Not Pliny!

Many scholars consider Pliny’s ten book epistolary corpus as the model for several other such collections in late antiquity, including most notably that of the famed pagan aristocrat and orator, Symmachus (e.g. Liebeschuetz, 2005; Matthews 1974). But there are problems in this assumed model. Symmachus’ nine books of private letters are not uniform in organization or style; books 8-10 are not organized by correspondent, as are books 1-7. Moreover, the 10th book is fragmentary, leading some scholars to propose that Symmachus’ State Papers were intended to be published as book 10 of his epistolary correspondence, but that Symmachus died before completing the task. In order to resolve these issues, some scholars have proposed, as an alternative, a seven book Symmachan corpus. So, J.P. Callu (1972) has argued for this based on organization differences; S. Roda (1981) suggested this based on discounting the explicits to the manuscripts; and C. Sogno (2006) has proposed this seven book model based in part on literary echoes in the opening letters of books 1 and 7. However, this seven book model has not won wide-scale acceptance, nor has any scholar considered the reasons for such a model. This paper will propose that Symmachus did in fact intend a seven book epistolary collection, inspired by Varro’s popular but no longer extant work, the Hebdomades, not Pliny’s Letters. I will present new arguments and new evidence for this view, none of which has been so utilized. This paper will thus focus on (1) internal allusions to Varro and his Hebdomades in the letters of Symmachus (e.g. Letter 1.2); (2) a re-reading of the explicits to the manuscripts in conjunction that considers the Latin terminology employed to undermine this evidence; and (3) late fourth-century allusions to Varro’s works and his archaizing style (e.g. Ausonius’ Aus. Mos. 305-307; Jerome, De Vir. Ill. 54 (ed. G. Herdingius: 38-39) that indicate a Varronian enaissance in the period that Symmachus was preparing his letters for publication.. Moreover, I will propose that Symmachus modeled his seven-book epistolary collection on Varro’s Hebdomades and not Pliny’s Letters because of Varro’s contemporary significance; Varro had come to represent the best of traditional Roman literary and scholarly culture in the face of competitive Christian alternatives. Augustine, the future bishop, who was present in Rome in the 380s and had been supported by Symmachus (Ebbeler and Sogno, 2007), had been similarly influenced by Varro’s late fourth-century significance. This little appreciated resurgence of interest in Varro in the 380s, demonstrated too by Symmachus’ seven book model for his intended epistolary corpus, helps to explain why Augustine chose to make Varro the object of his attack when he came, in later years,to write his Civitas dei.. Cited References: Callu, J.P. 1972. Symmaque. Lettres, Livres I-II (Paris). Ebbeler J. and Sogno, C. “Religious Identity and the politics of Patronage: Symmachus and Augustine,” Historia 56.2 (2007), pp. 230-342. Liebeschuetz, H.W.G. 2005. Ambrose of Milan. Political Letters and Speeches. Translated with an Introduction and notes by J.H.W.G. Liebeschuetz with the assistance of Carole Hill (Liverpool, U.K.) Matthews, J. 1974. “The Letters of Symmachus,” in Latin Literature of the Fourth Century ed. J.W. Binns (London and Boston), pp. 58-99. Roda, S. 1981. Commento storico al libro IX dell’epistolario di Q. Aurelio Simmaco ( Pisa). Sogno, C. 2006 Q. Aurelius Symmachus. A Political Biography (Michigan).