Boethius 1500

Today is believed to be the 1500th anniversary of the violent death of Boethius, on the orders of the Ostrogothic King Theodoric.

Boethius literary legacy, above all that of The Consolation of Philosophy, was immense - it and indeed his other works were essential reading for the next millennium. He served as link, a conduit, conveying the heritage of Greek learning as understood in the late Roman Empire to the medieval centuries and beyond. He is one of the great figures of European intellectual life.

Wikipedia has a useful introduction to his life and writings with an extensive and reasonably up-to-date bibliography. It can be seen at Boethius

A while back the Daily Telegraph had an article by Lindsay Johns about Boethius and his place not only in European culture, but also in his own life. That article can be read at The philosophical genius we all need to read

During the Covid lockdown I thought The Consolation of Philosophy seemed an appropriate thing to read. I had not done so before and, to be honest, for all of its elegant expression and charm of manner, I did not feel I drew much from it other than being able to say that I had now read it. Maybe I need to try again, as even older and, possibly, wiser. I think, however, that the problem may lie deep with me - my mind does not respond to the abstract world of Philosophy as an end in itself, but rather as a context within which one views the world of the past, the present and the future. That said, that was what Boethius was attempting to accomplish in The Consolation …. so perhaps I was just not in the right frame of mind at the time.