23
October 524 A.D.
Boethius Executed for Treason
Graves,
Dan. “Boethius Executed for Treason.” Christianity.com. Jul 2007.
http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/301-600/boethius-executed-for-treason-11629706.html. Accessed 4 Jun 2014.
The courage with which one man faced torture and
death in old Rome became a source of inspiration to all of Christendom for
centuries. Boethius lived when the Ostrogoths had conquered the Roman Empire.
His father died when he was seven, and he was reared by an aristocrat named Symmachus.
Boethius loved learning and set himself the task of
translating the greatest Greek works into Latin with comments. He hoped to
reconcile apparent contradictions in Aristotle and Plato. His death for treason
cut that project short, but the translations he finished formed the basis for
learning in the Middle Ages. It was Boethius who named the quadrivium, a course
of study required of all students in those troubled years.
Theodoric became king of Italy. Boethius rose high
in his favor, serving him as a consul in 510. The king honored him even more by
appointing his two young sons as consuls in 522.
Politics and religion got Boethius into hot water. He
not only accepted the trinity, but wrote a stout defense of it, whereas
Theodoric was an Arian who considered Christ a created being. Theodoric feared
that his orthodox subjects would side with Byzantium against him. He accused
Senator Albinus of plotting against him with the Byzantine court. Boethius
bravely defended the accused man. Theodoric jailed Boethius and had him
tortured. Like dominoes falling, Symmachus defended Boethius, but was sentenced
to death, too.
While on death row, Boethius questioned the events
that had befallen him. He, the innocent, was tortured, while Theodoric suffered
no harm. The book he wrote, called The Consolation of Philosophy, was the most
influential Latin book of the Middle Ages. In it he wrestled with profound
questions of right and wrong, foreknowledge and time.
C. S. Lewis wrote about The Consolation,
"Until about two hundred years ago it would, I think, have been hard to
find an educated man in any European country who did not love it." Perhaps
the reason The Consolation was so beloved is because it put life and death in
eternal perspective. Earthly glories are seen as illusory. It helped Boethius
face disgrace and death. On this day, October
23, 524, he was executed for treason by a cruel and torturous method.
Bibliography:
1. Barrett, Helen Marjorie.
Boethius: some aspects of his times and work. New York: Russell & Russell,
1965.
2. Boethius. The Consolation of
Philosophy. Edited and abridged by James Buchanan. New York: Frederick Ungar,
1957.
3. "Boethius, Anicius Manlius
Severinus." Dictionary of Scientific Biography. Editor Charles Coulston
Gillispie. New York: Scribner's, 1970.
4. Collison, Robert Lewis.
Encyclopaedias: their history throughout the ages; a bibliographical guide with
extensive historical notes to the general encyclopaedias issued throughout the
world from 350 B.C. to the present day. New York, Hafner Pub. Co., 1964.
5. Copleston, Frederick. History of
Philosophy.
6. D'Souza, Dinesh. The Catholic
Classics. Huntington, Indiana: Our Sunday Visitor, 1986.
7. Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and
Fall of the Roman Empire. Various editions available; Chapter 39.
8. Grout, Donald J. A History of
Western Music. New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1960.
9. Knowles, David. "Boethius,
Anicius Manlius Severinus," in Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Editor Paul
Edwards. New York: Macmillan, 1967.
10. Lewis, C. S. The Discarded Image;
An Introduction to Medieval and Renaissance Literature. Cambridge University
Press, 1994.
11. Payne, F. Anne. King Alfred &
Boethius, an analysis of the Old English version of the Consolation of
philosophy. Madison, University of Wisconsin Press, 1968.
12. Runes, Dagobert D. A Treasury of
Philosophy. New York: Philosophical Library, 1945.
13. Russell, Bertram. Wisdom of the
West. New York: Fawcett, 1964.
14. Struik, Dirk Jan. A Concise
History of Mathematics. New York: Dover Publications, 1967.
15. Turner, William. "Boethius,
Anicius Manlius Severinus." The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert
Appleton, 1914.
16. Various encyclopedia articles.
Last updated April, 2007.
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