Quintus Aurelius Memmius Symmachus (died 526) was a 6th-century Roman aristocrat, a historian and a supporter of Nicene Christianity.

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.

[2] Although Symmachus was the head of a family with a long connection with Pagan tradition—his grandfather Quintus Aurelius Symmachus delivered a famous speech urging the return of the Altar of Victory to the Roman Senate House—he was an ardent Christian,[3] interested both in theological disputes and, more prosaically, in the struggles for the control of the Pope.

Symmachus' wealth enabled his patronage: he was involved in publication of the Commentarii in Somnium Scipionis by Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, and there is even a copy of the work corrected by his hand.

[5] For the most part, Symmachus maintained good relationships with the new rulers of Italy—both Odovacer and Theodoric the Great -- demonstrated by his appointment as praefectus urbi between 476 and 491, consul in 485, patricius within 510, and even reaching the influential rank of caput senatus (president of the Senate).