THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY

ADVISORY EDITOR: BETTY RADICE

ANICIUS BOETHIUS (c. A.D. 480–524), the Roman philosopher, has been called one of the last authentic representatives of the classical world, in both his life and writings. He came of a family which had held office in the decaying Western empire. He was Consul in 510, and a trusted political adviser to Theodoric, the Ostrogoth. Later he became involved in a conspiracy and was imprisoned and executed at Ravenna. The historical importance of his work was immense, because it was only through Boethius’s translations that the knowledge of Aristotle survived in the West. He also wrote commentaries on Cicero, text-books on arithmetic and music, and a number of works on theology. His works were chosen for translation by Alfred the Great and he was one of the most influential Latin authors for the next thousand years.

VICTOR WATTS was born in 1938 and read classics and English at Merton College, Oxford, and did a year of postgraduate work at University College, London. He is Master of Grey College and part-time Senior Lecturer in the School of English at Durham University. His publications include articles and reviews and an edition of ‘On trees and herbs’, Book 17 of the medieval encyclopaedia On the Properties of Thing by Bartholomaeus Anglicus. He is Honorary Director of the English Place-Name Survey and editor of the Cambridge Dictionary of English Place-names.