Boethius: Tractates. De consolatione philosophiae

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LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY

IUS TRACTATES, DE

CONSOLATIONE PHILOSOPHIAE

Translated hv II

WART

and

1

.

K.

RAM)

I

\$4.oo \ \

titles

list

can be

ofLoeb found at the end of each volume Complete

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X

BOETHIUS Severinus

(Boetius) -,

Anicius

c. 480-524

Manlius

A.D.,

Roman

and philosopher, was son of Flavius Manlius Boetius, after whose death he was looked after by several statesman

men,

He

especially

married

Memmius Symmachus. Symmachus's

daughter,

whom

he had two sons. Rusticiana, by All three men rose to high honours under Theodoric the Ostrogoth, but Boethius fell from favour, was tried for treason, wrongly condemned and imprisoned at Ticinum (Pavia), where he wrote his

renowned

De Consolatione Philosophiae, until he was put to death in 524, to the Boethius great remorse of Theodoric. was revered as if he were a Saint and his bones were removed in 996 to the Church of S. Pietro in Ciel d'Oro, and later to the Cathedral. The tower in Pavia where he was imprisoned is still venerated. Boethius was author of Latin translations of Aristotle, of commentaries on various philosophical works, of original

works on

logic,

of

five

books on music

text-book in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge), and other (for long a

works. the

last

His De Consolatione Philosophiae is example of purely literary Latin

of ancient times

a

dialogue and poems.

mingling of alternate

We

include also the

Theological Tractates in this

volume.

X

NY PUBL C

L

BRARY THE BRANCH LIBRARIES

3 3333 05986 2900

THE LOEB CLASSICAL LIBRARY FOUNDED BY JAMES LOEB,

LL.D.

EDITED BY E. H.

WARMINGTON,

M.A., F.R.HIST.SOC.

PREVIOUS EDITORS fT. E.

fW. H.

PAGE, D.

|E. CAPPS,

C.H., LITT.D.

ROUSE,

L. A.

LITT.D.

BOETHIUS

74

PH.D., LL.D.

POST,

L.H.D.

BOETHIUS THE THEOLOGICAL TRACTATES WITH AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION BY H. F.

STEWART,

D.D.

FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE

AND

E. K.

RAND,

PH.D.

PROFESSOR OP LATIN IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY

THE

CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY WITH THE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF REVISED BY H. F.

"I. T." (1609)

STEWART

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS

HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS LONDON

WILLIAM HEINEMANN LTD MCMLXVIII

First printed 1918 Reprinted 1926, 1936, 1938, 1946, 1953, 1962, 1968

Printed in Great Britain

CONTENTS

..... ...... ..,..,

NOTE ON THE TEXT INTRODUCTION BIBLIOGRAPHY

.... ....

THE THEOLOGICAL TRACTATES

THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY SYMMACHI VERSUS INDEX

,

.

*

o

.

vli

ix

XV 2

,128 .

9

PAGE

412

NOTE ON THE TEXT IN preparing the text of the Consolatio I have used the apparatus in Peiper's edition (Teubner, 1871), since

his

reports, as

I

know

in

the case of the

Tegernseensis, are generally accurate and complete I have depended also on my own collations or ;

excerpts from various of the important manuscripts, nearly all of which I have at least examined, and

have also followed, not always but usually, the opinions of Engelbrecht in his admirable article, Die I

Consolatio Philosophiae des Boethius in the Sitzungsberichte

The (1902) 1-60. present text, then, has been constructed from only part of the material with which an editor should of the Vienna

Academy,

cxliv.

reckon, though the reader may at least assume that every reading in the text has, unless otherwise

the authority of some manuscript of the ninth or tenth century ; in certain orthographical details, evidence from the text of the Opuscula Sacra stated,

has been used without special mention of this fact. We look to August Engelbrecht for the first critical edition of the

Consolatio

at,

we

hope, no distant

date. vii

NOTE ON THE TEXT The

text of the Opiiscula Sacra is based on my own collations of all the important manuscripts of these

An

edition with complete apparatus cnticus will be ready before long for the Vienna Corpus

works.

The history Scriptonun Ecclesiasticorum Latinonnn. of the text of the Opuscula Sacra, as I shall attempt to show elsewhere, is intimately connected with that of the Consolatio. S. K. R.

ili

INTRODUCTION ANICIUS MANLIUS SEVERINUS BOETHIUS, of the famous Praenestine family of the Anicii, was born about 4-80 A.D. in Rome. His father was an ex-consul he himself was consul under Theodoric the Ostrogoth in 510, and his two sons, children of a great granddaughter of the renowned Q. Aurelius Symmachus, were joint consuls in 522. His public career was splendid and honourable, as befitted a man of his ;

and character. But he fell under the displeasure of Theodoric, and was charged with conspiring to deliver Rome from his rule, and with corresponding treasonably to this end with Justin, Emperor of the East. He was thrown into prison at Pavia, where he wrote the Consolation of Philosophy, and he was brutally put to death in 524. His brief and busy life was marked by great literary achievement. His learning was vast, his industry untiring, his object unattainable nothing less than the transmission to his countrymen of all the works of Plato and Aristotle, and the reconciliation of their apparently divergent views. To form the idea was a silent judgment on the learning of his day to realize it was more than one man could accomplish but Boethius accomplished much. He translated the Ei

and Holy

thrice

when we name the

Spirit, these

Father, Son.

three unities do not produce

a plurality of number in their own essences, if we think of what we count instead of what we count For in the case of abstract number a repetiwith. but in tion of single items does produce plurality the case of concrete number the repetition and plural use of single items does not by any means produce numerical difference in the objects counted. There are as a fact two kinds of number. There is the number with which we count (abstract) and the number inherent in the things counted (concrete). " One is a thing the thing counted. Unity is ;

13

BOETHII Duo

rursus in rebus sunt ut homines uel lapides ; dualitas nihil, sed tantum dualitas qua duo homines Et in ceteris eodeni modo. uel duo lapides fiunt. Ergo in numero quo numeramus repetitio unitatum

rerum uero numero non facit pluralitatein unitatum repetitio, uel si de eodem dicam "gladius unus mucro unus ensis unus." Potest enim unus tot uocabulis gladius agnosci haec enim unitatum iteratio potius est non nume" ensis mucro ratio, uelut si ita dicamus gladius/' non numeratio est eiusdem diuerrepetitio quaedam sorum, uelut si dicam "sol sol sol/' non tres soles effecerim, sed de uno totiens praedicauerim. Non igitur si de patre ac filio et spiritu sancto

20 facit pluralitatem

;

in

;

25

80 tertio

deus,

idcirco

trina

praedicatio ut dictum est imminet qui inter eos distantiam faciunt rneritorum. Catholicis uero nihil in differentia constituentibus ipsamque fonnam ut est esse ponentibus neque aliud 35 esse quam est ipsum quod est opinantibus recte repetitio de eodem quam enumeratio diuersi uidetur " deus esse cum dicitur pater deus filius deus spiritus " ensis sanctus atque haec trinitas unus deus/' uelut atque mucro unus gladius/' uelut "sol sol sol

praedicatur

numerum

40

unus

facit.

Hoc enim

illis

sol."

Sed hoc interim ad earn dictum sit significationem demonstrationemque qua ostenditur non omnem unitatum repetitionem numerum plaralitatemque perficere.

Non

uero ita dicitur " pater ac

multiuocum quiddam

45 sanctus" quasi

et spiritus nam mucro et

filius ;

one, one, one," I enounce three unities. are used to illustrate the same matter Arist. in Comment, in the irepl epwrivclas, 2nd ed. (Meiser) a

6

e.g. if I

*

The same words

56. 12.

14

say

DE TRINITATE that

by which oneness

is

Again "two"

denoted.

belongs to the class of things as men or stones but not so duality duality is merely that whereby two men or two stones are denoted and so on. Therefore a repetition of unities a produces plurality when it is a question of abstract, but not when it is a for example, if I say question of concrete things, as, " one sword, one brand, of one and the same thing, one blade." b It is easy to see that each of these names denotes a sword I am not numbering unities but simply repeating one thing, and in saying "sword, brand, blade," I reiterate the one thing and do not enumerate several different things any more than I produce three suns instead of merely " mentioning one thing thrice when I say Sun, Sun, Sun." So then if God be predicated thrice of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the threefold predication does not result in plural number. The risk of that, as has been said, attends only on those who distinguish ;

;

;

;

Them

But Catholic Christians, according to merit. allowing no difference of merit in God, assuming Him to be Pure Form and believing Him to be nothing else than His own essence, rightly regard the statement " the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and this Trinity is one God," not as an enumeration of different things but as a reiteration of one and the same thing, like the state" " or " sun, ment, blade and brand are one sword sun, and sun are one sun." Let this be enough for the present to establish my meaning and to show that not every repetition of

number and plurality. "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit," we

units produces

synonymous terms.

" Brand and

Still in

saying

are not using " are the blade

15

BOETHI1 et ipse est et idem, pater uero ac filius et spiritus sanetus idem equidem est, nori uero ij>se. In qua re erisis

paulisper considerandum

Requirentibus enim

est.

:

"

"

Minime," inquiunt. Ipse est pater qui filius?' "Idem alter qui alter?" Negatur. Non 50 Rursus :

est igitur inter eos in re ornni indiflerentia

;

quare

Bubintrat nurnerus quern ex subieetorum diuersitate corifici supcrius explanation est. De qua re breuih T COnsiderabimilBj 55

si

prius illud, quern ad

moduin de

deo urjum (jiiodque pracdicatur, praemisci'imus.

IV.

Decem omnino

pracdicatucnta traduritur quae de rebus omnibus uniucrsaliter praedicant ur, id est substantia, quaiitas, quantitas, ad ali(juid,

habere, situm esse,

f'aeere,

quando,

lace i^itur talia narn [>ars eorurn in I

pati.

C stint qualia snbiars in

aeeidentium nurnero

diuinarn

10

uerterit

est.

At

pracdical ioncm,

euncta

(jiiis

in

mul.antur

Ad alifjuid uero ornnino quae pracdirari possunt. non potest praedieari, narn substanl.ia in illo non est uere substantia sed ultra subsl.antiam et cetera fiat

quae uenire

LntellectUB exernpla

Nam eum ^>

cmn

liaee

si^nificare

stantiarn

ui