(475-525)
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëtius was born about 475 A. D. His father
was Flavius Manlius Boëtius, a patrician of great wealth and influence,
who was trusted by the Emperor Odoacer and held the consulship in 487.
The father died before his son reached manhood; and the youth was left
to the guardianship of his kinsmen Festus and Symmachus, by whom he was
carefully educated. He was remarkable early in life for his scholarship,
and especially for his mastery of the Greek language, an accomplishment
unusual for a Roman of this period. He entered public life when about
thirty years of age, but duties of State were not permitted to put an
end to his studies. He had married Rusticiana, the daughter of his
guardian Symmachus.
[Illustration: BOËTIUS]
The Roman world was now ruled by Theodoric the Ostrogoth. This leader
had succeeded to the headship of the Ostrogoths on the death of his
father Theodomir in 474. For a time he was a pensioner of the Byzantine
court, with the duty of defending the lower Danube; but in 488 he
determined to invade Italy and become a sovereign subordinate to no one.
By the defeat of Odoacer in 489 he accomplished that end; and desiring
to conciliate the Senatorial party at Rome, he called Boëtius from his
studious retirement, as one who by his position and wealth could
reconcile his countrymen to the rule of a barbarian chief.
In 510 Boëtius was made consul, and he continued in the public service
till after his sons Symmachus and Boëtius were elevated to the
consulship in 522. Thus far he had enjoyed the full confidence of
Theodoric; but in 523 he was thrown into prison in Pavia and his
property confiscated, and the Senate condemned him to death. Two years
later he was executed. Unfortunately, the only account we have of the
causes which led to this downfall is Boëtius's own in the
'Consolations.' According to this, he first incurred Theodoric's
displeasure by getting the province of Campania excepted from the
operation of an edict requiring the provincials to sell their corn to
the government, and otherwise championing the people against oppression;
was the victim of various false accusations; and finally was held a
traitor for defending Albinus, chief of the Senate, from the accusation
of holding treasonable correspondence with the Emperor Justin at
Constantinople. "If Albinus be criminal, I and the whole Senate are
equally guilty, Boëtius reports himself to have said. There is no good
reason to doubt his truthfulness in any of these matters; but he does
not tell the whole truth, except in a sentence he lets slip later.
Theodoric's act was no outbreak of barbarian suspicion and ferocity.
Boëtius and the whole Senate were really guilty of holding an utterly
untenable political position, which no sovereign on earth would endure:
they wished to make the Emperor at Constantinople a court of appeal from
Theodoric, as though the latter were still a subordinate prince. This
may not have been technical treason, but it was practical
insubordination; and under any other barbarian ruler or any one of fifty
native ones, Rome would have flowed with blood. Theodoric contented
himself with executing the ringleader, and the following year put to
death Boëtius's father-in-law Symmachus in fear of his plotting revenge.
Even so, the executions were a bad political mistake: they must have
enraged and thoroughly alienated the Senatorial party,--that is, the
chief Italian families,--and made a fusion of the foreign and native
elements definitively out of the question. We need not blame Boëtius or
the Senate for their very natural aspiration to live under a civilized
instead of a barbarian jurisdiction, even though they had their own
codes and courts; but the _de facto_ governing power had its
rights also.
In 996 Boëtius's bones were removed to the church of St. Augustine,
where his tomb may still be seen. As time elapsed, his death was
considered a martyrdom, and he was canonized as St. Severinus.
Boëtius was a thorough student of Greek philosophy, and formed the plan
of translating all of Plato and Aristotle and reconciling their
philosophies. This work he never completed. He wrote a treatise on music
which was used as a text-book as late as the present century; and he
translated the works of Ptolemy on astronomy, of Nicomachus on
arithmetic, of Euclid on geometry, and of Archimedes on mechanics. His
great work in this line was a translation of Aristotle, which he
supplemented by a commentary in thirty books. Among his writings are a
number of works on logic and a commentary on the 'Topica' of Cicero. In
addition to these, five theological tracts are ascribed to him, the most
important being a discussion of the doctrine of the Trinity.
The work which has done most to perpetuate his name is the 'Consolations
of Philosophy,' in five books,--written during his imprisonment at
Pavia,--which has been called "the last work of Roman literature." It
is written in alternate prose and verse, and treats of his efforts to
find solace in his misfortune. The first book opens with a vision of a
woman, holding a book and sceptre, who comes to him with promises of
comfort. She is his lifelong companion, Philosophy. He tells her the
story of his troubles. In the second book, Philosophy tells him that
Fortune has the right to take away what she has bestowed, and that he
still has wife and children, the most precious of her gifts; his
ambition to shine as statesman and philosopher is foolish, as no
greatness is enduring. The third book takes up the discussion of the
Supreme Good, showing that it consists not in riches, power, nor
pleasure, but only in God. In the fourth book the problems of the
existence of evil in the world and the freedom of the will are examined;
and the latter subject continues through the fifth book. During the
Middle Ages this work was highly esteemed, and numerous translations
appeared. In the ninth century Alfred the Great gave to his subjects an
Anglo-Saxon version; and in the fourteenth century Chaucer made an
English translation, which was published by Caxton in 1480. Before the
sixteenth century it was translated into German, French, Italian,
Spanish, and Greek.
It is now perhaps best known for the place it occupies in the spiritual
development of Dante. He turned to it for comfort after the death of his
Beatrice in 1291. Inspired by its teachings, he gave himself up for a
time to the study of philosophy, with the result of his writing the
'Convito,' a book in which he often refers to his favorite author. In
his 'Divine Comedy' he places Boëtius in the Heaven of the Sun, together
with the Fathers of the Church and the schoolmen.