BOETHIUS, or BOETIUS, Axicit's MAN LIPS TORQUATUS SEVERINUS 450-524). A Roman statesman and philosopher. The family to which be belonged had been distinguished for both its wealth and dignity for two centuries. His father, who held the office of consul, died when Anicius was still a boy, and consequently the latter was brought up under the Pare of Symmachus, whose daughter, 1Zusticinna, became his wife. It is known that he studied philosophy, mathematics. and poetry, translated and eluci dated with laborious care the writings of Aris totle. and of the old mathematicians, Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy, and others: hut the story of his eighteen stay in Athens is entirely unhistorical. BoOthitis soon attracted notice; he became a patrician before the usual age, a consul in 510, and also prinerps srnatus. Having. gained the esteem and confi dence of Theodoric, Eing of the Ostrogoths, who had fixed the seat of his government at Rome in the year 500. he was appointed by that monarch magistcr offiriorum in his Court. His influence \VHS invariably exercised for the good of Italy, and his countrymen owed it to him that the Gothic rule was so little oppressive. Ifis good fortune culminated in the prosperity of his two sons, who were made consuls in 522. But his bold uprightness of conduct, springing from what seemed to have been the essential characteristics of the man viz., a strong faith in the truth of his philosophic ethics, and a courage to regulate his official conduct by them—at last brought down upon his head the unscrupulous vengeance of those whom he had checked in their oppres sions and provoked by his virtues. lle was ac cused of treasonable designs against Theodoric; and the King, having become despondent and dis trustful in his old age• was induced to listen to the charges. Boethins was stripped of his dig nities, his property was confiscated, and after imprisonment at Pavia, he was exocnted about 524, according to one account, under circum stances of horrible enmity. During his imprison ment BoRbins wrote his famous De Consolatione Philosoplikr, divided into five looks. and com posed in the form of a dialogue, in Which Boe thins himself bolds a conversation with Philoso phy, who shows him the mutability of all earthly fortune, and the insecurity of everything save vir tue. The work is composed in a style which hap
pily imitates the best models of the Augustan Age, and the frequent fragments of poetry which are interspersed throughout the dialogue are Ilk. tinguished by their truthfulness of feeling and metrical accuracy. The Con.solat io is piously the istic in its language, but affords no indication that Boethins was a Christian; and if the doctrinal treatises ascribed to him are, as the aeutest criticism maintains, not genuine. we pnust class him in religion rather with Marcus Aurelius than with his alleged friend Saint Benedict. He was the last Roman writer of any mark who understood the Greek lammage and literature. During the Middle Ages he was re garded with profound reverenee, as the Augustine of philosophy. but on the introduction of the Aristotelian metaphysics in the Thirteenth Cen tury his reputation gradually sank. The first edition of BoRhins's entire works appeared at Venice, 1491-92; standard edition of the entire works in Nigne, Pa trologia Latina, Vols. ',XIII. LX1V. (Paris. 1860). The oldest edition of the Conso/a/io is that published at .Nuremherg, 1473, bat ninny manuscript translations into various languagcs had appeared long before the invention of printing. Among these may be mentioned that by King Alfred into Anglo-Saxon, and by Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth into English. (test edition by Peltier, Leipzig (Tenbner), 1875; a new translation by James (London, 1897). Con sult also Stewart, Boi'thius: .1n Essay (Edin burgh, 1591). The most interesting question in connection with Boethins's mathematical works relates to his knowledge of Ilindu numerals, char acters evidently derived from them appearing on the apices or small cones used on the abacus. A discussion of this question may be found in Cantor's Gesehichte der llatheinatik. Consult also A. Hildebrand, Boi'llus tend seine Stellung zmIn Christenthunt (Regensbnrg, ISS5).