a time when contempt for
intellectual pursuits had begun to pervade society. In his early years
he was seized with a passionate enthusiasm for Greek literature, and
this continued through life. Even amidst the cares of the consulship he
found time for commenting on the _Categories_ of Aristotle. The idea
laid hold of him of reviving the spirit of his countrymen by imbuing
them with the thoughts of the great Greek writers. He formed the
resolution to translate all the works of Aristotle and all the dialogues
of Plato, and to reconcile the philosophy of Plato with that of
Aristotle. He did not succeed in all that he designed; but he did a
great part of his work. He translated into Latin Aristotle's _Analytica
Priora et Posteriora_, the _Topica_, and _Elenchi Sophistici_; and he
wrote commentaries on Aristotle's _Categories_, on his book
[Greek: peri ermaeneias], also a commentary on the _Isagoge_ of
Porphyrius. These works formed to a large extent the source from which
the middle ages derived their knowledge of Aristotle. (See Stahr,
_Aristoteles bei den Romern_, pp. 196-234.) Boetius wrote also a
commentary on the _Topica_ of Cicero; and he was also the author of
independent works on logic:--_Introductio ad Categoricos Syllogismos_,
in one book; _De Syllogismis Categoricis_, in two books; _De Syllogismis
Hypotheticis_, in two books; _De Divisione_, in one book; _De
Definitione_, in one book; _De Differentiis Topicis_, in four books.

We see from a statement of Cassiodorus that he furnished manuals for the
quadrivium of the schools of the middle ages (the "quattuor matheseos
disciplinae," as Boetius calls them) on arithmetic, music, geometry and
astronomy. The statement of Cassiodorus that he translated Nicomachus is
rhetorical. Boetius himself tells us in his preface addressed to his
father-in-law Symmachus that he had taken liberties with the text of
Nicomachus, that he had abridged the work when necessary, and that he
had introduced formulae and diagrams of his own where he thought them
useful for bringing out the meaning. His work on music also is not a
translation from Pythagoras, who left no writing behind him. But Boetius
belonged to the school of musical writers who based their science on the
method of Pythagoras. They thought that it was not sufficient to trust
to the ear alone, to determine the principles of music, as did practical
musicians like Aristoxenus, but that along with the ear, physical
experiments sh