Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/874

856 to sell their com to the Government, whether they would or not. This edict would have utterly ruined Campania. Boetius interfered. The case was brought before the king, and Boetius succeeded in averting the coemptio from the Campanians. He also rescued PauHnus, a man of consular rank, from the jaws of those whom he calls palatincc canes (dogs of the palace), and who, he says, had almost devoured his riches. And he gives as a third and crowning instance in that he exposed himself to the hatred of the informer Cyprianus by preventing the punishment of Albinus, a man of consular rank. He mentions in another place that when at Verona the king was anxious to transfer the accusation of treason brought against Albinus to the whole senate, he defended the senate at great risk. In consequence of the ill-will that Boetius had thus roused, he was ac cused of treason towards the end of the reign of Theo- doric. Three accusers appeared against him. The first, Basilius, had been expelled from the monarch s service, and in consequence of debt he had become an informer and now appeared against Boetius. The other two were Opilio and Gaudentius, on whom sentence of banishment had been pronounced on account of innumerable frauds. They first took refuge in a church, but when this fact became known, a decree was issued that if they did not leave Ravenna before a prescribed day, they were to be driven out with a brand upon their forehead. On the very last day allowed them they gave information against Boetius, and their information was received. The accusation which these -villains brought against him was that he had conspired against the king, that he was anxious to maintain the integrity of the senate, and to restore Eome to liberty, and that for this purpose he had written to the Empercv Justin. Justin had, no doubt, special reasons for wishing to see an end to the reign of Theodoric. Justin was orthodox. Theodoric was an Arian. The orthodox subjects of Theodoric were suspicious of their ruler ; and many would gladly have joined in a plot to displace him. The know ledge of this fact may have rendered Theodoric suspicious. But Boetius denied the accusation in unequivocal terms. He did indeed wish the integrity of the senate. He would fain have desired liberty, but all hope of it was gone. The letters addressed by him to Justin were forgeries, and -he had not been guilty of any conspiracy. Notwithstand ing his innocence he was condemned and sent to Ticinum (Pavia) where he was thrown into prison. It was during his confinement in this prison that he wrote his famous work De Consolatione Philosophic?. His goods were con fiscated, and after an imprisonment of considerable dura tion he was put to death in 525. Procopius relates that Theodoric soon repented of his cruel deed, and that his death, which took place soon after, was hastened by re morse for the crime he had committed against his great counsellor. Two or three centuries after the death of Boetius writers began to view his death as a martyrdom. Several Christian books were in circulation which were ascribed to him, and there was one especially on the Trinity which they regarded as proof that he had taken an active part against the heresy of Theodoric. It was therefore for his orthodoxy that Boetius was put to death. And these writers delight to paint with minuteness the horrible tortures to which he was exposed and the marvellous actions which the saint performed at his death. He was canonized as Saint Severinus. The brick tower in Pavia in which he was confined was a hallowed building. And finally, in the year 996, Otho III. ordered the bones of Boetius to be taken out of the place in which they had lain hid, and to be placed in the church of St Augustine within a splendid marble tomb, for which Gerbert, who afterwards became Pope under the name of Silvester II., wrote an inscription. It should be mentioned also that some have given him a decidedly Christian wife, of the name of Elpis, who wrote hymns, two of which are still extant (Daniel, TJifs. Hymn., i. p. 156). This is a pure supposition inconsistent with chronology, unauthenticated by authority, and based only on a misinterpretation of a passage in the De Consolatione. The contemporaries of Boetius regarded him as a man of profound learning. Priscian the grammarian speaks of him as having attained the summit of honesty and of all sciences. Cassiodorus, the chancellor of Theodoric and the intimate acquaintance of the philosopher, employs language equally strong. And Ennodius, the bishop of Pavia, knows no bounds for his admiration. &quot; You surpass,&quot; he says to Boetius, &quot;the eloquence of the ancients in imitating it.&quot; The king Theodoric had a profound idea of his great scientific abilities. He employed him in setting right the coinage. When he visited Rome with Gunibald king of the Burgundians, he took him to Boetius, who showed them, amongst other mechanical contrivances, a sun-dial and a water-clock. The foreign monarch was astonished, and, at the request of Theodoric, Boetius had to prepare others of a similar nature, which were sent as presents to Gunibald. It was Boetius also whom Theodoric consulted when Clovis, king of the Franks, wished a musician who could sing to the accompaniment of the lyre, and Boetius was charged with the duty of selecting him. The fame of Boetius increased after his death, and his influence during the Middle Ages was exceedingly powerful. His circumstances peculiarly favoured this influence. He appeared at a time when contempt for intellectual pursuits had begun to pervade society. In his early years he was seized with a passionate enthusiasm for Greek literature, and this continued through life. Even amidst the cares of the consulship he found time for commenting on the Categories of Aristotle. The idea laid hold of him of reviving the spirit of his countrymen by imbuing them with the thoughts of the great Greek writers. He formed the resolution to translate all the works of Aristotle and all the dialogues of Plato, and to reconcile the philosophy of Plato with that of the Stagirite. He did not succeed in all that he designed ; but he did a great part of his work. &quot; Through your translations,&quot; says Cassiodorus to him, &quot;the music of Pythagoras and the astronomy of PtolenicGUS are read by the Italians ; the arithmetic of Nicomachus and the geometry of Euclid are heard by the Westerns ; the theology of Plato and the logic of Aristotle dispute in the language of Quirinus ; the mechanical Archimedes also you have restored in a Latin dress to the Sicilians ; and whatever discipline or arts fertile Greece has produced through the efforts of individual men, Rome has received in her own language through your single instru mentality.&quot; Boetius translated into Latin Aristotle s Ana- lytica Priora et Posteriora, the Tojiica, and Elenchi Sophistici ; and he wrote commentaries on Aristotle s Categories, on his book irfpl ep/^va as, also a commentary on the Isagoge of Porphyrius. These works formed to a large extent the source from which the Middle Ages derived their knowledge of Aristotle. (See Stahr, Aristoteles lei den Romern, pp. 196-234.) But Boetius did not confine himself to Aristotle. He wrote a commentary on the Topica of Cicero ; and he was also the author of independent works on logic : Introductio ad Categoricos Syllogismos, in one bookj De Syllogismo Categorico, in two books ; De Syllogitmis Hypotheticis, in two books ; De Divisione, in one book ; De Definitione, in one book; De Differentiis Topicis, in four books. ~ v ! We have also seen from the statement of Cassiodorus that he furnished manuals for the quadrivium of the schools of_the Middle Ages_(the &quot; quattuor mathcseos discipline,&quot; 