removed by Constantius, the son of Constantine, and restored by Julian the Apostate. The
Emperor Gratian again removed the statue, whereupon a deputation of the Senate, headed by
Symmachus, Prefect of the City, asked for its renewed restoration.
Symmachus, who also played a part in the life of Augustine, was a distinguished member of a
distinguished family--rich, aristocratic, cultivated, and pagan. He was banished from Rome by
Gratian in 382 for his protest against the removal of the statue of Victory, but not for long, as he
was Prefect of the City in 384. He was the grandfather of the Symmachus who was the father-
in-law of Boethius, and who was prominent in the reign of Theodoric.
The Christian senators objected, and by the help of Ambrose and the Pope ( Damasus) their
view was made to prevail with the Emperor. After the death of Gratian, Symmachus and the
pagan senators petitioned the new Emperor, Valentinian II, in A.D. 384. In rebuttal of this
renewed attempt, Ambrose wrote to the Emperor, setting forth the thesis that, as all Romans
owed military service to their sovereign, so he (the Emperor) owed service to Almighty God. *
"Let no one," he says, "take advantage of your youth; if he be a heathen who demands this, it is
not right that he should bind your mind with the bonds of his own superstition; but by his zeal
he ought to teach and admonish you how to be zealous for the true faith, since he defends vain
things with all the passion of truth." To be compelled to swear at the altar of an idol, he says, is,
to a Christian, persecution. "If it were a civil cause the right of reply would be reserved for the
opposing party; it is a religious cause, and I the bishop make a claim.... Certainly if anything
else is decreed, we bishops cannot constantly suffer it and take no notice; you indeed may come
to the Church, but will find either no priest there, or one who will resist you." â€
The next epistle points out that the endowments of the Church serve purposes never served by
the wealth of heathen temples. "The possessions of the Church are the maintenance of the poor.
Let them count up how many captives the temples have ransomed, what food they have
contributed for the poor, to what exiles they have supplied the means of living." This was a
telling argument, and one which was quite justified by Christian practice.
* This thesis seems to anticipate the outlook of feudalism.â
€
Epistle XVII.