Boethius and the Consolation of Philosophy

The Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise written in 524 by the former Roman consul Boethius while awaiting execution in prison, is often viewed as the most influential non-religious work of the entire Middle Ages. Boethius, a Roman of noble birth, served the the remnants of the Roman state for a time following the Ostrogothic takeover of the kingdom of Odoacer, who had deposed the final Roman Emperor Romulus Augustulus in 476, effectively dissolving the imperial system of government. Boethius and his family, which was of ancient Roman patrician stock, held great distinction in the early 6th century and the Ostrogothic king Theodoric employed Boethius to be the magister officiorum, or master of government and court services. However, in 523, Boethius was accused by Theodoric of conspiring with the Byzantine emperor Justin I to overthrow his regime and reinstate a Roman to the throne in the West. It is also possible that Boethius was being punished, not for treason, but for religious reasons. Theodoric, who was an Arian Christian, as were most Ostrogoths, grew alarmed at the eastern power because Justin I was a Catholic, as many of the Roman aristocracy were. Boethius, who may have been a pagan or a Catholic, could have been a casuality of this relgious strife. The source evidence is scant and the guilt or innocence of Boethius can likely never be settled; nevertheless, Boethius was imprisoned for one year and was executed following excruciating torture. During his year of imprisonment, Boethius wrote what is considered his capstone achievement, The Consolation of Philosophy.

The Consolation of Philosophy follows the Greek example of a dialogue, much as Aristotle and Plato had written, and the work takes the form of five books--part lyrical, part prose (the Menippean satire)--in which Boethius engages in a philosophical discussion with the Lady Philosophy. They discuss, among other things, fate vs. free will and the the idea of predestination, the nature of justice and virtue, and the question of why bad men prosper and go unpunished while good men suffer (an issue obviously close to Boethius' heart). Among the more notable and influential moments of the piece, is the concept of the "Wheel of Fate" which generally depicted a wheel with many spokes, with a king sitting atop the wheel and progressively lower ranks of people populating the spokes, until we reach the poor beggars, prisoners, and those of destitute fate at the bottom. Boethius reminds us that at any time the wheel may turn, sinking those of high birth into the pit of woeful fate (as had happened to himself) while the lowly rise to the top. While this notion had its roots in earlier Greco-Roman philosophy (particularly that of Cicero) and had seen cruder representation in various Germanic mythologies, the eloquence and depth with which Boethius elucidated the concept proved extremely appealing to early medieval philosophy and the parallels between it and the Christian concept of the "meek inheriting the earth" are easy to surmise. Indeed, Boethius, though he is usually studied in the medieval context, is generally seen as the last of the great classical authors, and his coupling of essential classical and Christian concepts, mirrors the cultural shift from Greco-Roman to medieval occurring during his lifetime. The Consolation of Philosophy ends with Boethius fittingly consoled by the Lady Philosophy with the idea, not of divine judgment, as this desire for retribution would not be virtuous, but with the image that all things that happen happen out of necessity, and that "no man can ever be truly secure unless he has been forsaken by Fortune."

The posterity of Boethius lies not just in this work, but in the long-lasting contributions he made to Latin scholarship. While The Consolation of Philosophy took shape only in his final year of life, his life's work was the translation of most of the major works by Aristotle and Plato from Greek into Latin, and in many places, his were the only translations available until the 12th century, nearly 600 years later. And, in the medieval university, which would not emerge until the late 11th century (500 years after his death), the basic curriculum of the "seven liberal arts" was drawn directly from his works: the trivium of grammar, rhetoric, and dialectic or logic included the essential techniques medieval students were required to conquer in order to graduate and, for the more advanced students, the quadrivium of music, astronomy, geometry, and arithmetic followed. Boethius' works, and especially The Consolation of Philosophy, were among the most translated works of the Middle Ages and the early modern period, undergoing translations in English in different periods by such luminaries as King Alfred the Great (Old English), Geoffrey Chaucer (Middle English) and even Queen Elizabeth I (modern English) who counted it among her favorite works. Due to the extraordinary circumstances of its composition, the masterful bridging of pagan and Christian concepts, and the honest humanity in Boethius' reconciliation with his reality and his fate, The Consolation of Philosophy remains a philosophical work of the ages.