Boethius

Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, known simply as Boethius, lived from about 480 to 524 AD. He was a Roman senator, consul, magister officiorum, polymath, historian and philosopher of the early Middle Ages. He rose to prominence under the Ostrogothic Kingdom and became a personal advisor to Theodoric the Great. Boethius set out to translate the Greek classics into Latin and to reconcile the teachings of Plato and Aristotle with Christian theology, producing translations and commentaries and writing on music, mathematics and theology; it is largely thanks to his translations that the works of Aristotle survived into the Renaissance. Imprisoned by Theodoric around 523, he wrote On the Consolation of Philosophy, a treatise on fortune and death that became one of the most widely reproduced works of the early Middle Ages. He was executed in 524 and is regarded by tradition as a Christian martyr.