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Boethius
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Symmachus and Boethius his son-in-law, both of noble and ancient lineage, were leading men of the Roman Senate and had been Consuls. Their practice of philosophy, their unsurpassed devotion to justice, their use of their wealth to relieve the distress of many strangers as well as citizens, and the great fame they ... attained caused men of worthless character to envy them. And when these laid false information against them to Theodoric, he believed them and put Symmachus and Boethius to death on the charge of plotting a revolution, and confiscated their property. And when Theodoric was dining a few days afterwards his servants placed before him the head of a large fish. This seemed to Theodoric to be the head of Symmachus newly slain. Indeed with its teeth set in its lower lip, and its eyes looking at him in a dreadful frenzied stare, it had a most threatening appearance.
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Boethius was a Christian classicist who lived in the waning years of Rome's greatness. A public servant and philosopher, he looked back towards the classical period for inspiration, while at the same time maintaining a conviction of the rightness of Christianity. Under Emperor Theodoric the Great, Boethius rose to positions of great honor and power, even eventually becoming Magister Officiorum, or "prime minister." Then, suddenly, for reasons not now entirely understood, Boethius fell out of favor and out of power. He was accused of treason and quickly condemned to death. While he was in prison awaiting execution, Boethius wrote a lengthy tract in Latin, The Consolation of Philosophy. Written in the manner and spirit of Greek philosophy, The Consolation of Philosophy reads at times very much like one of the dialogues of Plato.
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In 523, his old friend Theodoric ordered Boethius arrested on charges of treason, after allegations that Boethius had exposed himself to Theodoric's two wives and daughters. Boethius himself attributes his arrest to the slander of his rivals and/or a keg of beer that he had polished off the night before. Whatever the cause, Boethius found himself stripped of both his title and trousers and imprisoned in Pavia, awaiting an execution that took place the following year. His final words are said to have been "put my head where?"
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Boethius seems to have thought that God's providence is limited to the broad outlines of history, rather than to the individual events. In Book III of the Consolation, Boethius describes history as a great "wheel of fortune", created and sustained by God.
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The Alfredian Boethius project began in 2002, and its primary aim is to enhance understanding of the Anglo-Saxon adaptation and appropriation of late Roman culture, especially in the circle of King Alfred. Its focus is the Alfredian adaptation of Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy, and its work will lead in the first instance to a comprehensive new edition of this text, to be published by Oxford University Press. The project is based at Oxford University and is funded by a five-year research grant from the Arts and Humanities Research Board.
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Philosophy seems to have two different lines of argument to show Boethius that his predicament does not exclude him from true happiness. The first train of argument rests on a complex view of the highest good. The first (which is put forward in Book II and the first part of Book III) distinguishes between the ornamental goods of fortune, which are of very limited value—riches, status, power and sensual pleasure—and the true goods: the virtues and ... sufficiency, which is what those who seek riches, status and power really desire. It also recognizes some non-ornamental goods of fortune, such as a person's friends and family, as having considerable genuine value. On the basis of these distinctions, Philosophy can argue that Boethius has not lost any true goods, and that he still even retains those goods of fortune—his family—which carry much real worth. She does not maintain that, in his fall from being powerful, rich and respected to the status of a condemned prisoner, Boethius has lost nothing of any worth at all.
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Boethius