By the time he turned forty years old, Severinus Boethius (c. 480–c. 524) was one of the most respected and powerful men in Italy. An accomplished scholar, he had translated the work of many of the ancient Greek philosophers into Latin. As a political figure, he enjoyed the patronage of King Theodoric (c. 454–526), who frequently relied on the Roman scholar for advice.
But in 523, without warning or explanation, the philosopher’s fortunes changed drastically: He was arrested for treason, condemned to death without a trial, and thrown into a prison cell in northern Italy to await execution.
Such cruel twists of fate form one of the central themes in the landmark book that Boethius wrote while awaiting his death, De Consolatione Philosophiae (The Consolation of Philosophy). The book, a treatise on God, human virtue, and destiny, would become one of the best-known philosophical texts of the first millennium.
Boethius was born in Rome shortly after the Roman Empire collapsed in 476. He was orphaned at an early age, but received an extensive education in the Greek classics. A member of an influential Roman family, he went to work for the Ostrogoths, one of the Germanic tribes that had destroyed the empire and taken control of Italy.
Before his arrest, Boethius’s primary scholarly activity had been translating ancient philosophical works by Plato (c. 429–347 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC). Boethius has been called the Last of the Romans because of his devotion to classical philosophy, which was quickly falling out of favor in Europe with the demise of the empire and the ascendancy of Christianity. He also wrote about music theory, theology, and mathematics.
After Boethius had won the king’s trust, Theodoric made him the head of his civil service, a powerful position. Boethius’s arrest came after his political opponents convinced Theodoric that the philosopher was conspiring to overthrow him.
The most famous image in The Consolation of Philosophy is Boethius’s concept of the wheel of Fortune. He writes that all people are subject to the whims of Fortune, and he compares it to a spinning wheel; some may receive wealth and happiness, others calamity. After Boethius’s execution, his book would become one of the most widely read nonreligious books in the Christian world, influencing generations of Europeans.
ADDITIONAL FACTS
- The TV game show Wheel of Fortune takes its name from the sixth-century philosopher’s metaphor for fate.
- Boethius had hoped to complete translations of all of Plato’s and Aristotle’s works, a project that was cut short by his imprisonment.
- His translations of Aristotle were the only Latin versions of the philosopher’s texts available in the West until the twelfth century, when Europeans rediscovered the ancient Greek writers.
