Boethius

Boethius (bōē`thēəs), Boetius (bōē`shəs), or Boece (bōēs`) (Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius), c.475–525, Roman philosopher and statesman. An honored figure in the public life of Rome, where he was consul in 510, he became the able minister of the Emperor Theodoric. Late in Theodoric's reign false charges of treason were brought against Boethius; after imprisonment in Pavia, he was sentenced without trial and put to death. While in prison he wrote his greatest work, De consolatione philosophiae (tr. The Consolation of Philosophy). His treatise on ancient music, De musica, was for a thousand years the unquestioned authority on music in the West. One of the last ancient Neoplatonists, Boethius translated some of the writings of Aristotle and made commentaries on them. His works served to transmit Greek philosophy to the early centuries of the Middle Ages.

Bibliography

See H. F. Stewart, Boethius (1891); H. Chadwick, Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy (1981); E. Reiss, Boethius (1982).

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Boethius

 in full Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

(born AD 470–475?, Rome—died 524, Pavia?) Roman scholar, Christian philosopher, and statesman. Born to a patrician family, he became consul in 510 and subsequently chief minister to the Ostrogothic king Theodoric. Accused of treason and condemned to death, he wrote his Neoplatonic The Consolation of Philosophy while in prison awaiting execution. The work was extremely popular and influential through the Middle Ages and later. He is also known for his translations of works of Greek logic and mathematics, including those of Porphyry and Aristotle. His translations and commentaries were among the basic texts of medieval Scholasticism.