Boethius
Boethius Personal details Born AD 480 Rome, Kingdom of Odoacer Died AD 524 (age about 44) Pavia, Ostrogothic Kingdom Sainthood Feast day 23 October Venerated in Roman Catholic Church, possibly others Part of a series on Neoplatonism Concepts Theory of Forms Form of the Good Demiurge Henosis Nous Arche Logos Hypostasis Works Enneads De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum Liber de Causis The Consolation of Philosophy The Incoherence of the Incoherence De divisione naturae People Plato Ammonius Saccas Plotinus (disciples) Origen Porphyry Iamblichus Julian the Apostate Sallustius Hypatia Plutarch of Athens Macrobius Augustine of Hippo Syrianus Proclus Pseudo-Dionysius Damascius Simplicius of Cilicia Boethius Maximus the Confessor Johannes Scotus Eriugena Al-Farabi Solomon ibn Gabirol Isaac the Blind Thierry of Chartres Gemistus Pletho Marsilio Ficino Giovanni Pico della Mirandola Cambridge Platonists Related topics Platonism (in the Renaissance) Platonic Academy Middle Platonism Kabbalah Spirituality Druze Neoplatonism and Christianity / Gnosticism Philosophy portal v t e Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius, commonly called Boethius (/boʊˈiːθiəs/; also Boetius /boʊˈiːʃəs/; c. 480–524 AD), was a philosopher of the early 6th century. He was born in Rome to the ancient and prominent Anicia family, which included emperors Petronius Maximus and Olybrius and many consuls. His father, Flavius Manlius Boethius, was consul in 487 after Odoacer deposed the last Roman Emperor. Boethius himself entered public life at a young age and was already a senator by the age of 25. He was consul in 510 in the kingdom of the Ostrogoths. In 522 he saw his two sons become consuls. Boethius was imprisoned and eventually executed by King Theodoric the Great, who suspected him of conspiring with the Byzantine Empire. While jailed, Boethius composed his Consolation of Philosophy, a philosophical treatise on fortune, death, and other issues. The Consolation became one of the most popular and influential works of the Middle Ages.