332 Lozovsky
power quickly followed that brief period in office: he was arrested for the crime
of treason (the exact nature of which scholars still dispute), imprisoned, and
executed; shortly afterwards, Symmachus was executed as well.70
Although we lack direct evidence about the education of the young
Boethius, he would have received an excellent traditional schooling. Literary
allusions in his work testify to his knowledge of classical authors, and contem-
poraries noted his mastery of rhetoric. Ennodius listed Boethius’ name among
those learned men whose example his young protégés were to imitate, and
Cassiodorus considered him “the most skilled orator in both languages”, Latin
and Greek.71 This level of proficiency in Greek was noted: Boethius praised
Symmachus’ fluency in both languages, Ennodius mentioned the Greek books
owned by Faustus Niger, and Cassiodorus admired Dionysius Exiguus’ bilingual
fluency. At the same time, a working knowledge of Greek must not have been
unusual, as evidenced by official and personal contacts with Constantinople.72
Although it is uncertain whether Boethius had ever studied in one of the
Neoplatonic schools, his understanding of philosophy corresponded to the way
in which it was taught in Athens and Alexandria, the main centres of the time.73
In the Platonic and Pythagorean tradition practised there, mathematical dis-
ciplines were central: they led to understanding the structure of the universe
and guided the mind toward higher truths.74 In his early work De institutione
arithmetica, Boethius expressed the same view: “hardly anyone has been able
to reach the highest perfection of the disciplines of philosophy unless the
nobility of such wisdom was investigated by him in a certain four-part study,
the quadrivium”, that is the four arts of mathematics. Arithmetic, the first of
these disciplines to be learned, Boethius continued, “holds the principal place
and position of a mother to the rest”.75 Boethius’ treatise on arithmetic was
an expanded translation of the Introduction to Arithmetic by Nicomachus of
Gerasa, a standard textbook in Neoplatonic schools. Boethius’ De institutione
musica, written ca. 510, was also based on Nicomachus and other Neoplatonic
sources. Both tracts focused on theoretical rather than practical questions:
Boethian arithmetic treated relationships between numbers while his music
70 For Boethius’ last years see Obertello, Severino Boezio, pp. 85–138; Chadwick, Boethius,
pp. 46–56; Moorhead, “Boethius’ Life”.
71 Ordo generis Cassiodorum, p. 260: “Boethius.... utraque lingua peritissimus orator fuit”;
Chadwick, Boethius, p. 16.
72 On contacts between Ostrogothic Italy and Constantinople see, most recently, Bjornlie,
Politics.
73 Courcelle, Late Latin Writers, pp. 273–7, 316–17, n. 129; Obertello, Severino Boezio, pp. 26–9;
Chadwick, Boethius, p. 20; Marenbon, Boethius, p. 13; Moorhead, “Boethius’ Life”, p. 29.
74 Chadwick, Boethius, especially pp 20–1 and 69–70; Moorhead, “Boethius’ Life”, pp. 22–8.
75 Boethius, De institutione arithmetica 1.1, trans. pp. 71 and 74.