The Consolation of Philosophy has been many things to many men. In a much quoted phrase Gibbon described it as 'a golden volume not unworthy of the leisure of Plato or Tully', though he found its philosophy ineffectual) The Middle Ages did not find it so, and provided the Consolation with a long series of translators, commentators and imitators. King Alfred turned it into Old English for the education and enjoyment of his Anglo-Saxon subjects, and Chaucer and John the Chaplain into Middle English; Notker Labeo and Peter von Kastl turned it into medieval German, and Simun de Fraisne,Jean de Meung and others into Old French. ...

Written in prison before his brutal execution in AD 524, Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy is a conversation between the ailing prisoner and his 'nurse' Philosophy, whose instruction restores him to health and brings him to enlightenment. Boethius was an eminent public figure who had risen to great political heights in the court of King Theodoric when he was implicated in conspiracy and condemned to death. Although a Christian, it was to the pagan Greek philosophers that he turned for inspiration following his abrupt fall from grace. With great clarity of thought and philosophical brilliance, Boethius adopted the classical model of the dialogue to debate the vagaries of Fortune, and to explore the nature of happiness, good and evil, fate and free will.

Victor Watts's translation makes The Consolation of Philosophy accessible to the modern reader while losing nothing of its poetic artistry and breadth of vision. This edition includes an introduction discussing Boethius' life and writings, a bibliography, glossary and notes.

PREFACE

INTRODUCTION

Introductory

II Boethius' Life and Writings

III The Consolation of Philosophy

IV The Christianity of Boethius

V The Text

The Consolation of Philosophy

BOOK I

BOOK II

BOOK III

BOOK IV

BOOK V

BIBLIOGRAPHY

GLOSSARY