The Aurelii Symmachi were an aristocratic senatorial family (gens) of the late Roman Empire.
The family received its first offices at the beginning of the 3rd century under emperor Septimius Severus. It further increased its prestige, reaching its peaks in the 4th and 5th centuries. Among the most important members of this family were:
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, c.340–c.402, orator, consul in 391. Contemporaries considered him the best Latin orator of his age, similar to Cicero. He was the most influential of the Symmachi.
The family had a noteworthy interest in literature, and its members were patrons, editors and historians.
Lucius Aurelius Avianius Symmachus wrote a few epigrams on members of the Constantinian administration and another unknown literary work
Quintus Aurelius Symmachus wrote many letters, edited in ten volumes, five orations, three panegyrics and 49 relations for his office, among which the most famous is the third, written in order to request the restoration of the Altar of Victory; in the last part of his life he dedicated himself to philology.
^Aurelius Memmius Symmachus v.c. emendabam vel distinguebam meum Ravennae cum Macrobio Plotino Euexodio, «I, Aurelius Memmius Symmachus, vir clarissimus, corrected and put punctuation to my copy in Ravenna together with Macrobius Plotinus Eudoxius, vir clarissimus» (Hedrick, Charles W., History and Silence, University of Texas Press, 2000, ISBN0-292-73121-3, p. 183).