The Consolation of Philosophy

<p><i>The Consolation of Philosophy</i> is the best-known work of <a href=" Manlius Severinus Boethius</a>, a Roman statesman and scholar who lived at the intersection of the classical and medieval periods. Identified by fifteenth-century humanist Lorenzo Valla as “the last of the Romans and the first of the scholastics,” and by <a href=" in <i><a href=" History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire</a></i> as “the last of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged for their countryman,” Boethius was born in Rome around 476 to an aristocratic family, received a thorough education in Greek and rose rapidly to the ranks of senator, master of offices, and sole consul. He combined public life with scholarly projects, aiming to bring Greek learning to the Latin-speaking world through his translations of and commentaries on major logical and philosophical texts, especially those of Aristotle. In 523, having publicly expressed support for a senator who had been accused of treason, Boethius was stripped of all honors and exiled to Pavia, where he composed the work translated into English as <i>The Consolation of Philosophy</i>.</p> <p>Boethius himself is one of the work’s