Quintus Aurelius Symmaque (342-402) defender of paganism against Christianity triumphant - he sends a letter to Emperor Valentinian II urging him to restore the ancient symbols in 384 (Quintus Aurelius Symmachus urban prefect of Rome; addressed an elaborate epistle to Valentinian II; in a famous dispatch that was rebutted by Ambroted by Ambrot Se; the bishop of Milan- In an age when all religious communities credited the divine power with direct involvement in human affairs; Symmachus argues that the removal of the altar had caused a famine and its restoration would be beneficial in other ways - Subtly he pleads for tolerance for traditional cult practices and beliefs that Christianity was poised to suppress in the Theodosian edicts of 391) Engraving from ??Storia di Roma??by Francesco Bertolini