Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

Western philosophy Medieval philosophy
Boethius teaching his students (initial in a 1385 Italian manuscript of the Consolation of Philosophy.)
Full name	Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius
Birth	~480 AD
Death	524/5 AD
Main interests	problem of universals, religion, music
Notable ideas	The Wheel of Fortune
Influenced by Aristotle, Plato, Cicero

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius^[1] (ca. 480–524 or 525) was a Christian or pagan^[2][3][4][5] philosopher of the 6th century. He was born in Rome to an ancient and important family which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after Odoacer deposed the last Western Roman Emperor. Boethius himself was consul in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. In 522 he saw his two sons become consuls. Boethius was executed by King Theodoric the Great, who suspected him of conspiring with the Byzantine Empire.

Early life

Boethius' exact birth date unknown. It is generally established at around AD 480, the same year of birth as St. Benedict. Boethius was born to a patrician family which had been Christian for about a century. His father's line included two popes, and both parents counted Roman emperors among their ancestors.

Although Boethius is believed to have been born into a Christian family, recent scholarship has begun to theorise that, like Julian the Apostate, Boethius abandoned Christianity for paganism. In the words of Momigliano^[5], "Many people have turned to Christianity for consolation. Boethius turned to paganism. His Christianity collapsed — it collapsed so thoroughly that perhaps he did not even notice its disappearance."

It is unknown where Boethius received his formidable education in Greek. Historical documents are ambiguous on the subject, but Boethius may have studied in Athens, and perhaps Alexandria. Since the elder Boethius is recorded as proctor of a school in Alexandria circa AD 470, the younger Boethius may have received some grounding in the classics from his father or a close relative.

As a result of his education and experience, Boethius entered the service of Theodoric the Great, who commissioned the young Boethius to perform many roles.

Late life

Boethius imprisoned (from 1385 manuscript of the Consolation)

By 520, at the age of about forty, Boethius had risen to the position of magister officiorum, the head of all the government and court services. Afterwards, his two sons were both appointed consuls, reflecting their father's prestige.

In 523, however, Theodoric ordered Boethius arrested on charges of treason, possibly for a suspected plot with the Byzantine Emperor Justin I, whose religious orthodoxy (in contrast to Theodoric's Arian opinions) increased their political rivalry. Boethius himself attributes his arrest to the slander of his rivals. Whatever the cause, Boethius found himself stripped of his title and wealth and imprisoned in Pavia, awaiting an execution that took place in 524 the following year. The method of his execution varies by source — he was perhaps killed with an axe, a sword or clubbed to death.^[6] His bodily remains were placed in the church of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro in Pavia. In the book Paradise of The Divine Comedy, Dante had the spirit of Boethius be pointed out by St. Thomas Aquinas:

The soul who pointed out the world's dark ways,

To all who listen, its deceits unfolding.

Beneath in Cieldauro lies the frame

Whence it was driven; from woe and exile to

This fair abode of peace and bliss it came.^[7]

Works

Lady Philosophy and Boethius from the Consolation, (Ghent, 1485)

Boethius's best known work is the Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote most likely while in exile under house arrest or in prison while awaiting his execution, but his lifelong project was a deliberate attempt to preserve ancient classical knowledge, particularly philosophy. He intended to translate all the works of Aristotle and Plato from the original Greek into Latin. His completed translations of Aristotle's works on logic were the only significant portions of Aristotle available in Europe until the 12th century. However, some of his translations (such as his treatment of the topoi in The Topics) were mixed with his own commentary, which reflected both Aristotelian and Platonic concepts.

Boethius also wrote a commentary on the Isagoge by Porphyry, which highlighted the existence of the problem of universals: whether these concepts are subsistent entities which would exist whether anyone thought of them, or whether they only exist as ideas. This topic concerning the ontological nature of universal ideas was one of the most vocal controversies in medieval philosophy.

Besides these advanced philosophical works, Boethius is also reported to have translated important Greek texts for the topics of the quadrivium.^[8] His loose translation of Nicomachus's treatise on arithmetic (De institutione arithmetica libri duo) and his textbook on music (De institutione musica libri quinque, unfinished) contributed to medieval education. His translations of Euclid on geometry and Ptolemy on astronomy, if they were completed, no longer survive.

In his "De Musica", Boethius introduced the threefold classification of music:
1. Musica mundana — music of the spheres/world
2. Musica humana — harmony of human body and spiritual harmony
3. Musica instrumentalis — instrumental music (incl. human voice)

Boethius also wrote theological treatises, which generally involve support for the orthodox position against Arian ideas and other contemporary religious debates. His authorship was periodically disputed because of the secular nature of his other work, until the 19th century discovery of a biography by his contemporary Cassiodorus which mentioned his writing on the subject.^[9]

Boethius has been called by Lorenzo Valla the last of the Romans and the first of the scholastic philosophers. Despite the use of his mathematical texts in the early universities, it is his final work, the Consolation of Philosophy, that assured his legacy in the Middle Ages and beyond. This work is cast as a dialogue between Boethius himself, at first bitter and despairing over his imprisonment, and the spirit of philosophy, depicted as a woman of wisdom and compassion. Alternately composed in prose and verse, the Consolation teaches acceptance of hardship in a spirit of philosophical detachment from misfortune. Parts of the work are reminiscent of the Socratic method of Plato's dialogues, as the spirit of philosophy questions Boethius and challenges his emotional reactions to adversity. The work was translated into Old English by King Alfred, and into later English by Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth; many manuscripts survive and it was extensively edited, translated and printed throughout Europe from the 14th century onwards.^[10] Many commentaries on it were compiled and it has been one of the most influential books in European culture. No complete bibliography has ever been assembled but it would run into thousands of items.

"The Boethian Wheel" (or "The Wheel of Fortune") was a concept, stretching back at least to Cicero,^[11] that Boethius uses frequently in the Consolation; it remained very popular throughout the Middle Ages, and is still often seen today. As the wheel turns those that have power and wealth will turn to dust; men may rise from poverty and hunger to greatness, while those who are great may fall with the turn of the wheel. It was represented in the Middle Ages in many relics of art depicting the rise and fall of man.

Veneration

Tomb of Boethius in San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, Pavia.

Despite his possible paganism, he is recognized as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church. His feast day is October 23.^[12] Pope Benedict XVI has insisted on his relevance to modern day Christians.^[13]

Notes

1. "Boethius" has four syllables, the o and e are pronounced separately. It is hence traditionally written with a diæresis, viz. "Boëthius", a spelling which has been disappearing due to the limitations of typewriters and word processors.^{[citation needed]}
2. "Boethius". Retrieved on 2008-12-17.
3. "O'Donnell, Demise". Retrieved on 2008-12-17.
4. "Boethius's Complaint". Retrieved on 2008-12-17.
5. ^{a b} "The Bible and Boethius' Christianity". Retrieved on 2008-12-17.
6. Boethius
7. Boethius. Consolation of Philosophy. Translation
8. Cassiodorus Senator, Variae, I.45.4. trans. S. J. B. Barnish, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1992.
9. Richard A. Dwyer, Boethian Fictions, Narratives in the Medieval French Versions of the Consolatio Philosophiae, Medieval Academy of America, 1976.
10. Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, trans. Victor Watts (rev. ed.), Penguin, 1999, p.24 n.1.
11. St. Severinus Boethius — Catholic Online
12. General Audience of Pope Benedict XVI, 12 March 2008

References

• James, H. R. (translator) [1897] (2007), written at The University of Adelaide, The Consolation of Philosophy of Boethius, eBooks @ Adelaide, <http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/b/boethius/>.
• Marenbon, John (2004). Boethius. Oxford [u.a.]: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-513407-9. OCLC 186379876 191826140 223148558 231973258 50143461 51107445 57459204 63294098. 
• Colish, Marcia L. (2002). Medieval foundations of the Western intellectual tradition, 400-1400. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-07852-8. OCLC 185694056 40752272 52583412. 
• Chadwick, Henry (1981). Boethius, the consolations of music, logic, theology, and philosophy. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-826549-2. OCLC 8533668. 
• Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus (1867). "Boetii De institutione arithmetica libri duo". in Gottfried Friedlein (in Latin). Anicii Manlii Torquati Severini Boetii De institutione arithmetica libri duo: De institutione musica libri quinque. Accedit geometria quae fertur Boetii. in aedibus B.G. Teubneri. pp. 1–173. http://books.google.com/books?id=VwS0VRBsJLgC&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PPA1,M1. Retrieved on 2008-08-03. 
• Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus (1867). "Boetii De institutione musica libri quinque". in Gottfried Friedlein (in Latin). Anicii Manlii Torquati Severini Boetii De institutione arithmetica libri duo: De institutione musica libri quinque. Accedit geometria quae fertur Boetii. in aedibus B.G. Teubneri. pp. 177–371. http://books.google.com/books?id=VwS0VRBsJLgC&printsec=titlepage&source=gbs_summary_r&cad=0#PRA1-PA177,M1. Retrieved on 2008-08-03. 
• John, Donald Attwater; Catherine Rachel (1995). The Penguin dictionary of saints. London. ISBN 0-140-51312-4. OCLC 34361179 60310282. 
• Baird, Forrest E.; Walter Kaufmann (2008). From Plato to Derrida. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. ISBN 0-13-158591-6. 

Discography

• Carlo Forlivesi, Boethius (2008) for biwa. The piece is included in the CD album SILENZIOSA LUNA (ALCD 76).

External links

• Works by Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius at Project Gutenberg
• A 10th century manuscript of Institutio Arithmetica is available online from Lund University, Sweden
• De Musica by Boethius
• The Geoffrey Freudlin 1885 edition of the Arithmetica, from the Cornell Library Historical Mathematics Monographs
• Blessed Severinus Boethius at Patron Saints Index
• O'Connor, John J.; Robertson, Edmund F., "Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius", MacTutor History of Mathematics archive 
• Boethius at The Online Library of Liberty
• On Boethius and Cassiodorus — Benedict XVI Zenit.com

Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius". Image Credit.

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