Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

480?-524

Roman Philosopher and Scholar

Though he is remembered primarily as a philosopher, Boethius had a powerful impact on the history of mathematics. This was in large part because progress in mathematical learning among Western Europeans had come to a halt several centuries before his time, and would not resume for another half-millennium or more. Thus Boethius's writings remained among the principal guides to mathematics during the early medieval period.

Four years before his birth, the Western Roman Empire came to an end when the Germanic chieftain Odoacer (433?-493) removed the last Roman emperor from power and declared himself "king of Italy." At the time, the Romans did not perceive the fall of the Western Empire as an earth-shattering event, and many 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.

Before he reached his teens, Boethius lost his father, and therefore another prominent Roman named Symmachus became his guardian. Boethius later married Symmachus's daughter Rusticana, with whom he had two sons. In the course of his education, Boethius fell under the influence of Plato (427?-347 b.c.), whose Republic offered a model for participation in government by philosophers, and this—combined with family traditions—influenced his choice of a career in public life. He soon rose through the ranks, reaching the position of consul in 510.

By that time, Italy had come under the control of the Ostrogoth chieftain Theodoric (454?-526), who was to have a tragic effect on Boethius's career. As a Roman official, Boethius busied himself with his political duties—including service in the senate—and his studies and writings. The latter included an examination of the quadrivium, a group of four subjects (arithmetic, music, geometry, and astronomy) studied by Romans for ages.

In writing on the quadrivium, Boethius discussed the relationship between music and science, specifically that between a note's pitch and the frequency of the sound. This reflected the influence of Pythagorean ideas, and indeed Boethius's Arithmetic constituted medieval scholars' principal source regarding Pythagorean number theory. Boethius also translated Categories and De interpretatione by Aristotle (384-322 b.c.), as well as Porphyry's (234?-305?) Isagoge, and planned to translate and write commentaries on all the works of Plato and Aristotle. Events, however, prevented him from the fulfillment of this extremely ambitious goal.

His misfortunes began in 522, when he came to the defense of a senator accused of treason. It seems the senator, Albinus, had written to Justin I, ruler of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire, asking for the aid of the mainstream Christian emperor against Theodoric, who adhered to the Arian heresy. Boethius apparently thought Albinus guilty, but wanted to protect the reputation of the senate, and this exposed him to charges of suppressing evidence. He was then accused of treason himself, and imprisoned in the town of Pavia.

Boethius would spend the remaining two years of his life in jail, where he wrote his most enduring work, The Consolation of Philosophy, which set the tone for a thousand years of European history. Though he was a devout Christian, the Consolation makes little direct reference to Christian principles. Indeed, the text seems more closely tied to pagan Stoicism than to Christianity, with its principles of free will and redemption. Built on the conceit of a message delivered to Boethius in his cell by the allegorical figure of "Lady Philosophy," the Consolation teaches that divine justice can be seen even in the most random and seemingly arbitrary misfortune.

Boethius died in prison in 524, either by execution or as the result of torture. He quickly came to be regarded as a martyr, was later canonized, and gained a further measure of immortality through his influence on medieval thought.

JUDSON KNIGHT