Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 477-524) was a Roman senator, consul, philosopher, and one of the last great intellectuals of the classical Latin world. Born into the illustrious Anician family of Rome, he set out to translate and reconcile the entire works of Plato and Aristotle into Latin, and through his logical commentaries and textbooks on the quadrivium he transmitted ancient learning to the Latin Middle Ages. Serving the Ostrogothic king Theoderic the Great as consul (510) and master of offices, he fell from favor amid accusations of treasonous correspondence with the Eastern Roman court at Constantinople, was imprisoned, and executed around 524. While awaiting death he composed his masterpiece, the 'Consolation of Philosophy,' which became one of the most widely read and influential books of the medieval era. He appears in the present corpus as a correspondent within the circles of Cassiodorus and Ennodius of Pavia, fellow luminaries of the Ostrogothic Italian elite.