Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/71

 nr] THE TRANSMISSION OF LETTERS 63 races, a king indeed, the Ostrogoth Theodoric. This king is great in reality, and is to have in minstrel story a fabled name^ and fame equal to the philos- opher's repute of him who was once his trusted friend, but is now his condemned prisoner. The wherefore of all this may never be known. We do not know what may have led Boethius to con- template or feebly attempt the impracticable. It is not certain that he was connected with any scheme prejudicial to the king.* That open-minded monarch was sometimes a barbarian. He was an old man now, and perhaps had become suspicious. Probably the doc- trinaire philosopher had laid himself open to suspi- cion. With less real cause, though perhaps with more irritating provocation, Vespasian put to death Hel- vidius. The deaths of Boethius and Symmachus, his noble father-in-law, blot Theodoric's fame; but for the philosopher, the evil condemnation was to be posthumous good. It led him to compose a book which was to be read and prized by great and noble men. No pagan-minded scholar whose manhood saw the year five hundred could be other than a transmitter of the greater past. Not only would his thoughts have come to him from the past, his character also would be moulded by his mighty heritage. So it was with Boethius. The contents of his mind came from the past, which also largely made his personality. » Dietrich of Berne (Verona). of hindering an informer from producing evidence to prove the Senate Rtiilty of treason. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invadera, Vol. III. Bk. IV, Chap. 12, disooases the wholu mattor.
 * Boethiufl, De Con. Phil., I, prosa 4, says that he was aooosed