BOËTHIUS, or BOËTIUS, ANICIUS MANLIUS TORQUATUS SEVERINUS, a Roman statesman and philosopher, born of an illustrious patrician family, between A.D. 470 and 475. It is conjectured that he was the grandson of Flavius Boëthius, the prefect of the prætorium, who was murdered by Valentinian III., and that his father was the consul of A.D. 487. Being
left an orphan at a very early age, the care of his education devolved on his relations, who sent him, it has been said, to Athens, where he resided eighteen years, and was a pupil of Proclus. This statement, however, rests only on the very questionable authority of Thomas Brabantinus (De Disciplina Scholarium), and is in effect contradicted by Cassiodorus (i. 45). However this may be, he was early distinguished at Rome for the extent and variety of his acquirements, and his intimate acquaintance with the literature of Greece. Boëthius occupies a remarkable place in literary history, as standing on the confines between the ancient and scholastic philosophy; being, says Gibbon, the last of the Romans whom Cicero would have acknowledged for his countryman. He lived at Rome in great splendour and affluence, and was not more distinguished for his learning than for his virtue and great liberality to the poor. Rising rapidly in the public esteem, he was successively appointed to various high offices in the state, and at length was made consul A.D. 510. That public affairs, however, did not entirely engross his attention, is testified by his great literary industry, and in particular by his voluminous translations from the Greek philosophers. As a statesman he was pre-eminent for integrity, as well as for his unremitting diligence in the detection of fraud and the suppression of violence, to which his countrymen were continually exposed from the rapacity of their Gothic invaders. The talents and virtues of Boëthius were duly appreciated by Theodoric, who made him magister officiorum in his court, and consulted him upon all affairs of importance. By that king he was employed to regulate the coinage with a view to the prevention of forgery; and he was engaged in some important negotiations with Gundebald, king of the Burgundians, and with Clovis, king of the Franks. He also appears to have paid some attention to practical mechanics, as among other specimens of his skill he constructed for Gundebald a clepsydra and a gnomon, which greatly delighted that prince.
Boëthius married Rusticana, the daughter of Symmachus, and by her he had two sons, who were made consuls A.D. 522; upon which occasion, after pronouncing a panegyric on Theodoric, he distributed among the populace a large sum of money. The consulships of his sons, and that of his father, have erroneously been ascribed to himself. The story also of his previous marriage with Elpis of Sicily appears to be a fable, as the two sons of that lady were consuls in the year 500, at which time Boëthius was certainly not above thirty years of age.
His unflinching integrity, and the zeal he displayed in defending his countrymen against the extortion and excesses of their Gothic masters, rendered Boëthius highly obnoxious to the courtiers; and they resolved to accomplish his ruin. Theodoric, now grown through old age morose and fretful, lent a ready ear to their insinuations against his noble minister; and of this disposition in the king, three men of profligate lives and desperate fortunes, Gaudentius, Opilio, and Basilus, took advantage in order to gratify private revenge. The boldness with which Boëthius defended Albinus when accused of treason, was made the plea on which they charged him with a design to dethrone the king and throw off the barbarian yoke; to which was added the crime of sacrilege or sorcery. Boëthius was at this time at a distance from Rome; yet Theodoric transmitted the complaint to the senate, who, partly perhaps through fear, condemned him to death without summoning him to his defence. Accordingly he was imprisoned at Ticinum (Pavia), in the baptistery of the church; and here, during his captivity, he composed his celebrated treatise De Consolatione Philosophiæ. The manner of his death is uncertain: it has been said that his eyes were forced from their sockets by a cord drawn tightly round his head, and that he was beaten with clubs till he expired; but it is more probable that he suffered decapitation, A.D. 524-526. Two centuries afterwards, a cenotaph was erected to his memory in the church of S. Pietro Cielo d'Oro, by Luitprand king of
the Lombards; and in 990 Otho III. honoured his memory with a magnificent mausoleum, which was inscribed with an epitaph by Pope Sylvester II.
It was for ages the custom to regard Boëthius as a Christian saint and martyr, but without any sufficient foundation; for unless the theological works sometimes ascribed to him be really his (which seems more than doubtful), there is no evidence of his having professed Christianity; nor is the name ever mentioned in the Consolatio Philosophiæ, though the high moral tone, and the belief in prayer and a superintending Providence, might naturally lead to such an inference. This work is written in alternate prose and verse (the latter chiefly borrowed from Seneca), and is a dialogue between the author and Philosophy personified.
During the middle ages this work had many translators as well as imitators. For centuries the Peripatetic philosophy was studied only through the commentaries of Boëthius; but on the introduction of Aristotle's writings into Europe in the thirteenth century, the fame of Boëthius, whose works had in some measure supplied the void during 800 years, gradually began to decline, and sunk at length into comparative obscurity.
The learning and eloquence of Boëthius are conspicuous in his works, which were first published in a collected form at Venice, in folio, 1491 (or 1492); and an improved edition, in folio, appeared at Basle in 1570. It is worthy of notice that Boëthius is one of the principal Latin writers on music, and that his treatise De Musica supplied for some centuries the want of those Greek manuscripts which were supposed to be lost. It may also be observed, as an interesting fact in literary history, that Alfred the Great translated the Consolatio Philosophiæ into Anglo-Saxon, with large original additions. The best edition of this work is by J. S. Cardale, with notes and a translation, 1828.