Boethius or Anicius Manlius Severinus Boëthius (480 AD – 525 AD), was a Roman senator, consul, magister officious, and philosopher of the early 6th century. He is unique because the philosopher was born four years after the Western Roman Empire ‘technically’ ceased to exist when Odoacer took the title of the King of Italy (in 476 AD). Boethius himself served the Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great and was ultimately imprisoned and executed by his patron.