Boethius

Born 480

Died 524

Roman philosopher

I n his Consolation of Philosophy, written in a prison cell as he awaited execution, Boethius developed a view of the world that came to symbolize the medieval age in Europe. True virtue, he explained, lay not in changing one's fate, but in accepting the fate one was assigned by Fortune. His personification of "Fortune" and "Philosophy" as women also set the tone for countless medieval allegories, symbolic stories in which characters represented ideas. Though he was born after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Boethius was a Roman to the core, and as with Augustine (see entry), his writings represent a vital link between the ancient and medieval worlds.

A distinguished Roman family

Four years before Boethius (boh-EE-thee-us) was born, the Western Roman Empire came to an end when the Germanic chieftain Odoacer (oh-doh-AY-sur; c. 433–493) removed the last Roman emperor from power and declared himself "king of Italy." At the time, people did not perceive the fall of the Roman Empire as an earth-shattering event, one which many historians regard as the beginning of the Middle Ages. For one thing, there still was a Roman Empire— only it was the Eastern Roman Empire, based in Greece and referred to by modern scholars as the Byzantine Empire.

Though in fact he ruled Italy as a separate kingdom, Odoacer had declared himself a servant of the Eastern Roman emperor, and many Romans believed that business would continue as usual. Certainly that was the impression among Boethius's family, a distinguished line that could trace their roots back more than six centuries. Several of his relatives, along with other leading Roman citizens, served Odoacer in important positions.

Education for leadership

Before he reached his teens, Boethius, whose full name was Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, lost his father. Therefore another prominent Roman named Symmachus (SIM-uh-kus) became his guardian, and looked after his education. Boethius's generation was one of the last to enjoy the full range of learning from Greece, which had been expanded by the writings of great Roman figures.

In the course of his education, he was exposed to the writings of Plato (PLAY-toh; 427–347 b.c.), whose Republic offered a model for participation in government by philosophers, or men who devoted their time to contemplating the deepest questions of existence. Plato was one of the greatest of the ancient Greek philosophers, and his ideas were to have an effect on Boethius throughout his life.

Not only was he fluent in Greek, but Boethius also wrote in a classical form of Latin. The latter language would continue to survive during the Middle Ages, but in a different form; the Latin that Boethius knew was more closely linked to that of the Roman Empire's golden age centuries before than it was to the Latin used by Europeans just a few decades after his time. Boethius, however, had no idea that the world of classical Rome was fading so rapidly: in his mind, his education was training for leadership, after which he would take a prominent role, as members of his family had done for centuries.

A flourishing career

A good marriage—that is, marriage to someone of equal or higher social rank—was essential to the career of a noble Roman. Thus Boethius was married to Symmachus's daughter Rusticana, with whom he had two sons. Years later, in his prison cell, he would look back on the joy he had shared with his family, and this only added to his sorrow. Hence his statement that "in all adversity of fortune, it is the most unhappy kind of misfortune to have been happy."

Boethius rose through the ranks, reaching the position of consul in 510. Centuries earlier, under the Roman Republic (507–31 b.c.), the city's two consuls had ruled not only Rome, but all of its territorial possessions as well. Times had changed, however, and Rome was no longer even the capital of Italy. The government had moved to the city of Ravenna, where a new king was in charge: Theodoric (c. 454–526), an Ostrogoth or eastern Goth chieftain who had slain Odoacer.

Theodoric was to have a tragic effect on Boethius's career, but that still lay in the future as Boethius busied himself with his political duties and his studies. The former included service in the senate, the body that had governed Rome for a thousand years. As for his studies, these included the topics of the quadrivium, a group of four subjects studied by Romans for ages: arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy. Boethius wrote considerably on these and other subjects.

Trouble with the authorities

He would not have long to enjoy the privileges of his birth, because events soon took place that would ultimately bring about the end of his life. Troubled by corruption, long a factor in the Roman government, Boethius made enemies in high places when he tried to protect honest men from attacks by greedy and power-hungry leaders.

Ashikaga Takauji

In viewing the Middle Ages, it would be hard to find two individuals more different than Boethius and Ashikaga Takauji (tah-kah-OO-jee; 1305–1358), who founded a dynasty of Japanese shoguns, or military leaders. The comparison is worthwhile because both men were members of their countries' noble classes; but whereas Boethius was accused of treason in his lifetime and was believed innocent by later generations, Ashikaga is remembered as, among other things, a traitor. Furthermore, Boethius's life was defined by his ability to suffer injustice in silence, whereas Ashikaga took action against what he considered an unjust situation.

This contrast is particularly interesting in light of what many people believe about Western civilization, of which Boethius was a part, in contrast to the Eastern civilizations of Japan, China, India, and other countries. According to this line of thought, the Eastern tradition is characterized by silent submission to one's fate, whereas the West is more associated with the idea of taking action to correct perceived wrongs. In the case of Boethius and Ashikaga, exactly the opposite was true.

Though Japan was formally under the control of an emperor, the real power lay in prominent families such as the Kamakura, who established the first of two shogunates that were to control the country off and on between 1192 and 1573. Ashikaga founded the second of these shogunates, but not before he helped bring down the Kamakura in a somewhat underhanded way.

Typically, Japanese emperors were children who were easily manipulated by the shoguns and powerful families, but in 1318, a full-grown adult named Go-Daigo (goh DY-goh; 1288–1339) assumed the throne. When Go-Daigo revolted against the shoguns, they exiled him in 1331, but he escaped two years later. The leaders trusted Ashikaga to capture him, but in the process of doing so, Ashikaga made a deal with Go-Daigo.

Claiming to be a secret supporter of the emperor, Ashikaga joined forces with him to overthrow the Hojo family, who had assumed control of the Kamakura shogunate. Once Go-Daigo was restored to power, however, he proved an inept ruler, and offended Ashikaga by appointing his son, rather than Ashikaga himself, as shogun. In 1336, Ashikaga ousted GoDaigo, and replaced him with an emperor who appointed him to the all-important shogun position.

Thus was born the Ashikaga shogunate (1338–1573), sometimes referred to as the Muromachi period because its cultural life centered on the Muromachi district of Tokyo. And indeed it was a time of cultural flourishing, for which Ashikaga deserves much of the credit. His place in Japanese history is somewhat uncertain, however, due in part to the fact that many scholars believe he was overshadowed by his powerful grandson Yoshimitsu (ruled 1368–95).

A greater source of controversy regarding Ashikaga, however, relates to what many consider his treacherous actions. In that vein, he is often compared unfavorably to Kusunoki Masashige (mah-sah-SHEE-gay; 1294–1336), a warlord who remained faithful to Go-Daigo and committed suicide after he was defeated by Ashikaga. Regardless of his moral stature, however, Ashikaga was undoubtedly a brilliant strategist and leader who ushered in a culturally significant era of Japanese history.

His real misfortune began, however, in 522, when he came to the defense of a senator accused of treason. It appears that Boethius may have thought the senator guilty, but he wanted to protect the reputation of the senate, and this exposed him to charges of suppressing evidence. He was then accused of aiding Justin I, the Byzantine emperor, against Theodoric. Therefore Theodoric ordered that he be imprisoned in the town of Pavia (PAHV-ee-uh).

The Consolation of Philosophy

Boethius would spend the remaining two years of his life in jail, where he wrote his most enduring work, The Consolation of Philosophy. He had written a number of books before, but without the Consolation his name might well have been forgotten. As it was, he set the tone for a thousand years of European history.

Though he was a devout Christian, the Consolation is a work of philosophy and makes little direct reference to Christian principles. Its message that suffering should be endured might seem to bear a close relation to the teachings of Christ, but Christ taught that believers in God should endure suffering with the hope of a reward in Heaven. The Consolation, by contrast, seems to say that suffering is its own reward, and in this it is more closely tied to the ancient Roman tradition of Stoicism (STOH-uh-sizm), which held that true nobility is found in withstanding hardship.

Nonetheless, the message that "Lady Philosophy" delivers to Boethius—the book is built around the idea that the spirit of philosophy came to visit him in his cell, clothed in the body of an otherworldly woman—has an underlying Christian theme. By the end of the work, Philosophy shows him that God's justice can be seen even in the most random and arbitrary-seeming misfortune. Furthermore, she shows him that although man has free will to choose good or evil (a central belief of Christianity), true freedom lies in choosing virtue.

Echoes of Boethius

Boethius died in prison in 524, either by execution or as the result of torture. He quickly came to be regarded as a martyr, or someone who dies for their faith, though in fact he died for his convictions about morality and politics. Nonetheless, he was declared a saint, and he had an enduring effect on medieval thought.

Much of that effect may be judged as unfortunate from the viewpoint of a modern person: by teaching people to accept their fate, one might reason, Boethius was condemning them to unnecessary suffering. But to take that approach is to view Boethius from the perspective of the present, rather than from that of the sixth century.

Among Boethius's many admirers were the ninth-century Anglo-Saxon king Alfred the Great (see box in Basil II entry) and the sixteenth-century English queen Elizabeth I, both of whom produced translations of The Consolation of Philosophy. Esteemed by figures such as Dante (see entry) and the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer (see English Scholars, Thinkers, and Writers entry), he continued to exert an influence almost a millennium after his death.

For More Information

Books

Chadwick, Henry. Boethius: The Consolations of Music, Logic, Theology, and Philosophy. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1981.

Encyclopedia of World Biography, second edition. Detroit: Gale, 1998.

Historic World Leaders. Detroit: Gale, 1994.

Web Sites

Boethius. [Online] Available http://www.smcm.edu/users/bsthomassen/boethius.html (last accessed July 26, 2000).

"Boethius." [Online] Available http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/boethius.html (last accessed July 26, 2000).

"Boethius." [Online] Available http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/CHRIST/ BOETHIUS.HTM (last accessed July 26, 2000).

"Japan in the Ashikaga, Sengoku, and Tokugawa Eras." [Online] Available http://www.loyno.edu/~history/worldciv/ppoint/toku/sld001.htm (last accessed July 26, 2000).