Boethius and The Consolation of Philosophy

Life
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (480-526 CE) was a member of a wealthy Roman family. According to tradition, he was unfairly imprisoned and executed by the very senate which he had fought to protect. The Roman emperor, an Ostrogothic king, Theodoric may have had him punished for treason and disloyalty. What was left of the western half of the empire was embroiled in political and theological turmoil; Boethius may have been a victim.

During his time in prison, Boethius write The Consolation of Philosophy: a dialogue between a character named Boethius who has been unjustly imprisoned and Philosophy. The text reflects the degree of Boethius’s classical training, education, and mastery of Greek rhetoric.

 

His Description of Philosophy
“While I was pondering thus in silence, and using my pen to set down so tearful a complaint, there appeared sta nding over my head a woman's form, whose countenance was full of majesty, whose eyes shone as with fire and in power of insight surpassed the eyes of men, whose colour was full of life, whose strength was yet intact though she was so full of years th at none would ever think that she was subject to such age as ours. One could but doubt her varying stature, for at one moment she repressed it to the common measure of a man, at another she seemed to touch with her crown the very heavens: and when s he had raised higher her head, it pierced even the sky and baffled the sight of those who would look upon it. Her clothing was wrought of the finest thread by subtle workmanship brought to an indivisible piece.”

A Description of Fortune and a Reference to Her Wheel

She was never reliable.
“But if you think that Fortune has changed towards you, you are wrong. These are ever her ways: this is her very nature. She has with you pr eserved her own constancy by her very change. She was ever changeable at the time when she smiled upon you, when she was mocking you with the allurements of false good fortune. You have discovered both the different faces of the blind goddess. To the eyes of others she is veiled in part: to you she has made herself wholly known."

What does she offer that you value?
"Do you reckon such happiness to be prized, which is sure to pass away? Is good fortune dear to you, which is with you for a time and is not sure to stay, and which is sure to bring you unhappiness when it is gone? But seeing that it cannot be stayed at will, and that when it flees away it leaves misery behind, what is such a fleeting thing but a sign of coming misery? Nor should it ever satisfy any man to look only at that which is placed before his eyes. Prudence takes measure of the results to come from all things."

It was your choice to trust Fortune.
"And lastly, when you have once put your neck beneath the yoke of For tune, you must with steadfast heart bear whatever comes to pass within her realm. But if you would dictate the law by which she whom you have freely chosen to be your mistress must stay or go, surely you will be acting without justification; and you r very impatience will make more bitter a lot which you cannot change. If you set your sails before the wind, will you not move forward whither the wind drives you, not whither your will may choose to go? If you intrust your seed to the furrow, will you not weigh the rich years and the barren against each other? You have given yourself over to Fortune's rule, and you must bow yourself to your mistress's ways. Are you trying to stay the force of her turning wheel?"

Her Wheel
Ah! dull- witted mortal, if Fortune begin to stay still, she is no longer Fortune. As thus she turns her wheel of chance with haughty hand, and presses on like the surge of Euripus's tides, fortune now tramples fie rcely on a fearsome king, and now deceives no less a conquered man by raising from the ground his humbled face. She hears no wretch's cry, she heeds no tears, but wantonly she mocks the sorrow which her cruelty has made. This is her sport: thus she proves her power; if in the selfsame hour one man is raised to happiness, and cast down in despair,'tis thus she shews her might".

The Nature of Evil
“It is sufficient for humans to understand one and only one thing: God, who has created everything in nature, also governs all things and directs them towards good. Since God preserves all things, which are, after all, in his image, God also excludes necessarily, all evil from the boundaries of his government. If you consider only Providence as the governor of all things, you will conclude that evil, which seems to exist all over the universe, does not exist.”

Other Sources