Episode Details

Boethius translated Aristotle's logical works into Latin, preserving them for the medieval West. Then the Ostrogothic king Theodoric accused him of treason and threw him in prison, where he wrote The Consolation of Philosophy, one of the most influential books of the Middle Ages.

This episode tells the story of a Roman senator who bridged the ancient and medieval worlds, and whose prison writings shaped Christian thought for a thousand years.

• How his translations kept Aristotelian logic alive during the Dark Ages
• The treason charge and whether it was politically motivated
• Why The Consolation of Philosophy comforted readers from Alfred the Great to Chaucer
• His brutal execution and the end of classical Roman intellectual life