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Classical and Christian
The sixth century was a time of great transformation in the Western world; it was the time of the end of the Classical Period and the beginning of the Christian Era. Rome had fallen to the barbarians, but they had assumed the mantle of Roman Emperors. However, these barbarian "emperors," and the empire they ruled, were just a shadow of the real thing. In other words, the remnants of the old Roman world still existed, but on top of that foundation was being built a new Christian world. Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy is an example of how the sixth century saw a mixture of the new Christian thought blended with a base of Classical philosophy.
Boethius was a Roman aristocrat who had served the Ostrogothic Emperor Theodoric the Great. The Ostrogoths had conquered Rome and set themselves up as the inheritors of the Roman Empire, even going so far as to declare themselves Roman Emperors. Boethius was sentenced to death when he fell out of favor with Theodoric, but while awaiting execution, he wrote Consolation of Philosophy from his prison cell. The book is an imaginary discussion between Boethius and the Classical figure of "Philosophy," but while Philosophy is a Classical concept, she argues that true happiness can only be found through union with the Christian God.
Boethius began his book in a state of deep frustration over the...
"Why, O my friends, did ye so often puff me up, telling me that I was fortunate? For he that is fallen low did never firmly stand." (Cooper 2009, 8) What is interesting about Boethius' entire point-of-view is that it begins from a Classical standpoint. Fortune is not a Christian concept, it comes from the pre-Christian past, but Boethius seems obsessed by the fortune that has befallen him. He doesn't cry out to God, or Jesus for alleviation from his plight, but instead blames Fortune for his misery.
Another interesting aspect of Boethius' book lies in the title: Consolation of Philosophy. The Term "Consolation" actually comes from the Latin for a medicinal treatment. Boethius' consolation, or medicine, is not Christianity, or Christian theology, but a Classical cure: philosophy. These aspects of Consolation of Philosophy indicate that Boethius, and the world in which he lived, lay inbetween the pagan Classical world and the up and coming Christian one. Christianity was becoming the dominant view of the world, but there were still strong Classical foundations upon which it was being built.
Evidence of this idea comes in Book III, when Boethius realized that all the things that are normally considered to be "the form of human happiness: wealth, honours, power, glory, and pleasure," were only transitory. (Cooper 2009, 29) He…
References
Cooper, W.V. 2009. "The Consolation of Philosophy by Anicius Manlius Severinus
Boethius." The Ex-classics Project. Accessed 15 Sept. 2012.
http://www.exclassics.com/consol/consol.pdf
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