Boethius Anicius Manlius Severin (Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus)

(ca. 480-524)
Born in Rome in a noble family, his father was consul 487. After his father was adopted by Quint Simmahom Aurelius, whose daughter later married Rustitsiane. In the 510 was consul during the reign of Theodoric Ostrogoths. Boethius was accused of trying to overthrow Theodoric in treasonable correspondence with the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, an opponent of Arianism, which followed Theodoric. As a result, Boethius was thrown into prison in Titsine (now Pavia), tortured and executed (in 524).
Boethius are also a lot of knowledge and diligence. He sought to make available the works of Plato and Aristotle, as well as interpret and reconcile the teachings of these philosophers. Boethius translated the works of the Greek philosopher and Neo-Platonist Porphyry, wrote a commentary on the Topic of Cicero and left some of his own, where matters of logic, mathematics and music. Furthermore, Boethius owns five theological treatises on the Trinity and the Christian Faith. In them he spent a strict distinction between faith and reason, arguing that the mind should only reinforce the belief. Glory Boethius Consolation brought his work philosophy (De consolatione philosophiae), written by him before his death in prison. Although in this work Boethius and does not show hostility to religion, but the comfort and understanding, he does not look for it, but only in the mind. The book begins with a description of the vision, in which the philosophy of Boethius appears in the guise of a beautiful woman, referring to him with words of consolation. She encourages him to get to know himself, ignored his injuries and recall their successes. She shows him that the madness - to seek high positions, to serve the kings and seek bodily pleasures, and advises to learn to distinguish the true welfare of the apparent. It also discusses why the existence of evil, the vicissitudes of fate and the question of the relationship between free will and divine predestination.

Boethius is often called the last Roman and the first scholastic. He was a Christian, and long before Thomas Aquinas attempted to reconcile Platonism and Aristotelianism with the Christian teachings. These works of Boethius had a profound influence on the theological thought of the next century, introducing medieval scholastics with Aristotelian ideas, Aristotelian method of justifying faith and Aristotelian classification of Sciences. In the Middle Ages Consolation philosophy, was very popular, was translated into Anglo-Saxon language of King Alfred the Great (849-899), and then into English - Dzh.Choserom (ca. 1340-1400).