The Consolation of Philosophy

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This short work of philosophy was written in 421 AD by a Roman aristocrat named Boethius. Boethius is famous for being the last of the classical writers and the first of the medieval ones---a kind of bridge between the two worlds. He was a Christian, but he fully embraced the classical heritage (including Plato and others) like very few before or after him. The book is a mix of Platonic dialogues and short poems. (It was written in Latin; I'm reading the translation by Victor Watts.)

Boethius wrote this work while he was in jail awaiting execution. He had been an advisor to the Germanic emperor Theodoric, but had fallen from grace and would soon be tortured and killed. As so many before and after him, he is trying to understand the vicissitudes of fortune and understand why the innocent perish and so many bad men flourish.

Among my favorite parts are the poems, like this one:

The world in constant change
Maintains a harmony,
And elements keep peace
Whose nature is to war.
The sun in car of gold
Draws forth the rosy day,
And evening brings the night
When Luna holds her sway.
The tides in limits fixed
Confine the greedy sea;
No waves shall overflow
The rolling field and lea.
And all this chain of things
In earth and sea and sky
One ruler holds in hand:
If Love relaxed the reins
All things that now keep peace
Would wage continual war
And wreck the great machine
Which unity maintains
With motions beautiful.
Love, too, holds peoples joined
By sacred bond of treaty,
And weaves the holy knot
Of marriage's pure love.
Love promulgates the laws
For friendship's faithful bond.
O happy race of men
If Love who rules the sky
Could rule your heart as well.
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