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Article: Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus
- Article from:
- Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography
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Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus
(
b
. Rome [?],
ca
. 480;
d
. near Pavia, Italy, 524/525)
logic, mathematics, music, theology, philosophy
.
Very little is known of Boethius
’
life before his downfall, imprisonment, and execution (522
–
525). He belonged to one of the more eminent families of the Roman aristocracy, the Anicii, to which two emperors and perhaps also Pope Gregory the Great belonged. Manlius Boethius, consul for 487, may have been his father, and a prefect of the
praetorium
for 454 may have been his grandfather. Indirect evidence suggests an approximate date for Boethius
’
birth: he was younger than the writer Ennodius (
b
. 475), his distant relative and ...