He was a tribune in the Roman army, but resigned upon being baptized a Christian, ultimately retiring to his estate near Tivoli, where he was joined by his brother, Amantius.

When all of the Emperor's attempts to induce Symphorosa and her sons to sacrifice to the pagan Roman gods were unsuccessful, he ordered her to be brought to the Temple of Hercules, where, after various tortures, she was thrown into the Anio River with a heavy rock fastened to her neck.

[4] The next day, the emperor summoned Symphorosa's seven sons, and being equally unsuccessful in his attempts to make them sacrifice to the gods, he ordered them to be tied to seven stakes erected for the purpose round the Temple of Hercules.

Hereupon the persecution ceased for one year and six months, during which period the bodies of the martyrs were recovered by the Christian community[4] and buried on the Via Tiburtina, eight or nine miles (14 km) from Rome.

The opinion that they were written by Julius Africanus (3rd century) has been rejected almost universally, since neither Eusebius nor any other contemporary historian makes the least allusion to any Acts of Roman or Italian martyrs composed by this African writer.

In the seventeenth century, Bosio discovered the ruins of a basilica at the place popularly called "le sette fratte" (taken to be a corruption of words meaning "the seven brothers"), on the Via Tiburtina, nine miles (14 km) from Rome.

Martyrum Simforosae, viri sui Zotici (Getulii) et Filiorum ejus a Stephano Papa translata (Here rest the bodies of the holy martyrs Symphorosa, her husband Zotius (Getulius) and her sons, transferred by Pope Stephen).