Author: BOETHIUS
Biography:
BOETHIUS, Anicius Manlius Severinus (c. 476-526: Proquest Biographies)
He was born to a patrician family in Rome but was orphaned at an early age and raised by Symmachus, a Christian whose daughter, Rusticiana, he later married. Boethius was well-educated in Greek and he set out to translate the complete works of Plato and Aristotle. He also wrote theological works. In about 520 he was given an important court appointment by Theodoric, the Ostrogoth who was king of Italy from 496-526, and his two sons were made consuls. However, Boethius--probably unjustly--came under suspicion of plotting against Theodoric and he was imprisoned before being executed. His most famous work, De Consolatione Philosophiae, was written while he was in prison awaiting execution. Written as a dialogue between a prisoner and the female personification of Philosophy, it alternates prose with poetry in an exploration of suffering, the problem of evil, and the nature of goodness. It was translated into Old English by King Alfred in the 9th century. Samuel Fox’s 1835 translation into modern English of King Alfred’s text is listed in this bibliography; Fox has his own headnote. The translator of the 1792 work, The Metres of Boethius, has not been identified. Paul Preston, translator of The Works of…Boethius, was from an early settler family in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. A self-taught mathematician, surveyor, teacher, and linguist, he died in 1806, aged eight-four. (Elizabeth Evershed, Proquest Biographies [2012]; Alfred Mathews, History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania [1886]) SR