Boethius

Boethius (480-526)

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius stands alone among my personal influences as the only one, with the possible exceptions of Aquinas and Augustine, who was a scholar in the traditional sense -- an educated academic.

Not only was Boethius an academic, he was far and away the most educated man in the world at the time he lived. In fact, he was the most educated man the world had seen in the hundred years preceeding his birth, and for another hundred years after his death, as well. He was the last "Roman" scholar, in a sense, and his career spanned the fall of the Western Empire.

Boethius came from an ancient and noble Roman family, and eventually rose to the rank of Consul -- the highest rank available next to the throne itself -- before he was imprisoned, tortured and executed under the orders of the barbarian Emperor Theoderic. He was accused of treason for his participation in solving a dispute with the Church in Constantinople over the Arian controversy (Theoderic was an Ostrogoth, and therefore an Arian, while Boethius remained an orthodox Christian until his death).

The central goal of his life was to translate the entire collected writings of both Plato and Aristotle, and to prove his contention that the two great philosophers were not at odds, as is commonly thought. He was unable to ever make an effective case for that, and in fact, was unable to complete his monumental translation project before his death. Only a few pieces of his work remain extant, althouth they are still considered some of the best ever written. In many ways, Boethius can be credited for saving civilization itself, because hundreds of years later, Boethius' translations of Aristotle and Porphyry were the only link to the ancient world. Without his work, the medieval world would never have known who they were.

While he was imprisoned and awaiting execution, he penned The Consolation of Philosophy, which was to become by far the most widely read and reproduced book of the medieval world, besides the Holy Bible itself. The best way to understand Consolation is to forget all the commentaries and explanations for it, and to just read it, IMO, so here it is:

The Consolation of Philosophy

A more comprehensive history of Boethius can be found on the web at the
Catholic Encyclopedia