Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, 480?–525?

Boethius was a highly educated Roman statesman and Neoplatonic scholar.  He set out on an ambitious (and unfinished) project to translate and write commentaries on all the works of Aristotle and Plato, with special attention to points upon which these two Greek philosophers agreed.  His last work was The Consolation of Philosophy, which he wrote while in prison awaiting execution for alleged treason.  Boethius was so free of superstition and fanaticism that Bertrand Russell wrote of him, “He would have been remarkable in any age; in the age in which he lived, he is utterly amazing.”