“Philosophy,” “Boethius,” “Fortune,” and Fortune’s Wheel

Boethius’s Historical context and Consolation

Question 1: What was Boethius’s historical context, how did it contribute to his rise and fall, and how can this help us understand the Consolation?

Question 1: What was Boethius’s historical context, how did it contribute to his rise and fall, and how can this help us understand the Consolation?

Two phases: Roman (lasting 41 years) and . . . Ravennan (lasting 1 or 2 years)

Roman phase brought: leisure, learning, comfort, social prestige, “soft” political power

Goths, blended with Italians, in Italy (510 ce)

Romans in East(Constantinople)

Goths“hard” power in Ravenna

Roman Empire pushed East“soft” power in Rome (consul)

454 CE – 526 CE (died aged 71 or 72)

Question 1: What was Boethius’s historical context in 480 CE, how did it contribute to his rise and fall, and how can this help us understand the Consolation?

Two phases: Roman (lasting 41 years) and . . . Ravennan (lasting 1 or 2 years)

Rome phase (“soft” political power): leisure, learning, comfort, social prestige

His full name reflects his circumstances: Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius

Ravenna phase (“hard” political power): at the age of 41, he took a prestigious post in Ravenna offered to him by the Gothic king, Theodoric. The job was Magister officorum,

“Master of the Offices,”

Trinity (Roman Catholic): Arian:Christ = God Christ ≠ GodOrthodox HeterodoxBoethius Theodoric

The Letter Incident

1. Albinus sent a letter from Rome to Constantinople2. Cyprian, in Ravenna, where Boethius is stationed,

accuses Albinus of asking Constantinople for help to “liberate” Rome from the Goths

3. Boethius defends Albinus, saying before Theodoric that “The charge of Cyprian is false, but if Albinus did it, both I and the entire senate have done it, acting together. The business is false, lord king.”

The Letter Incident

4. Cyprian cooks up false letters and witnesses that “prove” Boethius and Albinus were working together to challenge Theodoric’s power. 5. Theodoric is convinced. 6. Boethius is imprisoned.7. Boethius writes the Consolation8. Boethius is executed.

The Letter Incident

Question for you all to consider:

What was the letter incident all about? Was it about religious belief or local political power?

The Consolation’s “Frame Story”

The fictional “Boethius” (interlocutor) and the personification of Philosophy

The Symposium

The fictional “Socrates” (interlocutor) talking with the personification of Philosophy as Diotima

Janus-Faced Fortune (one day favors you, another not)

As with the fleeting pleasuresof men, a stern law decreesthat nothing in life lasts. (37)