Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (sometimes spelled Boetius) was a Roman writer, philosopher, and politician who lived after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. He was born around the year 477 CE (which happens to be one year after Odoacer conquered Italy) and died in the year 524 at the hands of king Theodoric.
In a time period when the West had little literary activity, Boethius stood out for being a very active scholar and philosoper. He translated the works of Plato and Aristotle into Latin, made several commentaries on said philosophers, and composed several treatises of his own on on arithmetic (De arithmateca), theology (Opuscula Sacra), music (De musica), and more.
However his most famous and influental work is undoubtedly The Consolation of Philosophy (De consolatione philosophiae) - a work that influenced pretty much all Medieval and Renaissance thought in Europe from that point on. As C. S. Lewis put it, "until about two hundred years ago it would, I think, have been hard to find an educated man in any European country who did not love it". In the book, Boethius has a conversation with the personification of Philosophy herself discussing such issues as free will, human nature, justice, virtue, and fortune. The book alternates between the format of poetry, dialogue, and prose. The work explores these themes in a rather accessable manner compared to other works of philosophy.
Boethius became a senator at the age of 25, and was generally loyal to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. However he fell out of favor with the king around 523. The reasons for why are disputed; the most likely reason is that he defended a man named Albinus on charges of treason and got accused of the same crime by the king - although religious reasons might have been the case as well, as Boethius was a Nicene Catholic/Orthodox Christian cozy with the Eastern church, which would have worried the Arian Christian Theodoric. Either way, he found himself imprisoned by the king and later executed in 524 CE. It was in his prison that he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy.
Tropes included in the works of Boethius:
- Anthropomorphic Personification: Plenty, most notably Lady Philosophy and Fortune.
- God Is Good: Boethius understood God as the seat of the highest good, and even claims that God is absolute happiness itself.
- Lady Luck: He popularized the trope among medieval writers. Though Fortune is technically a servant of God, she is depicted as cruel, uncaring, and generally harmful.
- Miscarriage of Justice: According to Boethius himself, that is, he was unjustly imprisoned.
- You Are Not Alone: This is the message that Philosophy gives Boethius in The Consolation of Philosophy:"Could I desert thee, child," said [Philosophy], "and not lighten the burden which thou hast taken upon thee through the hatred of my name, by sharing this trouble? Even forgetting that it were not lawful for Philosophy to leave companionless the way of the innocent, should I, thinkest thou, fear to incur reproach, or shrink from it, as though some strange new thing had befallen?
Boethius in Popular Culture:
- In The Divine Comedy, Dante sees the soul of Boethius in the fourth sphere of heaven.
- Mentioned in The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. Screwtape discusses how God is able to see all times at once, and how Boethius was able to point this out.
- Ignatius J. Reilly of A Confederacy of Dunces regularly references Boethius.
- Boethius appears disguised as a beggar in 24-Hour Party People, who gives Tony Wilson advice about the world.
