Boethius (consul 522)

Flavius Boethius (fl. 522-526) was a Roman politician during the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy.

Son of the philosopher Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius^[1] and of Rusticiana (his aunts were Galla and Proba) Flavius was the brother of Symmachus, with whom he shared the consulate,^[2] chosen by the Ostrogothic court.

His father fell into disgrace with the Ostrogothic ruler and had his own property confiscated; at the death of king Theodoric the Great (526), these properties were given back to Boethius and Symmachus.^[3] Flavius Boethius is known to have served as praetorian prefect of Byzantine North Africa from 560 to 561.^[4]

John R.C. Martyn suggests that Flavius had three children:^[5]

• Boethius, who is known to be Primate of Byzacena in North Africa;
• Symmachus, a patrician, who was still alive in February 601;
• Rusticiana, a correspondent of Pope Gregory the Great and patron of the Catholic church in Rome; her daughter Eusebia married into the Apion family of Byzantine Egypt, and Eusebia's son was Strategius Apion.

Notes

1. Boethius does not mention the name of his sons in his The Consolation of Philosophy, but in II.3.8, 4.7 he mentions their joint consulate.
2. AE 1961, 284
3. Procopius of Caesarea, Bellum Gothicum, I.2.5.
4. John R.C. Martyn, "A New Family Tree for Boethius", Parergon, 23 (2006), p. 6 doi:10.1353/pgn.2006.0082
5. Martyn, "A New Family Tree", pp. 5-8

Bibliography

• CIL IX, 2074 CIL X, 4496
• Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin, John Robert Martindale, John Morris, The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire, "Fl. Boethius 3", volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1992, ISBN ISBN 0-521-20159-4, p. 232.