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Boethius composed the DeConsolatione Philosophiae in the 6th century AD whilst awaiting death under torture. He has been condemned on a charge of treason which he protested was manifestly unjust. Though a convinced Christian, in detailing the true end of life which is the soul's knowledge of God, he consoled himself not with Christian precepts but with the tenets of Greek philosophy. The Consolation dominated the intellecutal world of the Middle Ages and it was translated at different times by Alfred the Great, Chaucer, and Elizabeth I. The circumstances of composition, the heroic demeanour of the author, and the texture of part prose, part verse have combined to exercise a fascination over students of philosophy and literature every since.
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