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ciana] 212 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap, xxxix a consul ; and the professors of grammar, rhetoric, and juris- prudence, were maintained in their privileges and pensions by the liberality of the Goths. But the erudition of the Latin language was insufficient to satiate his ardent curiosity ; and Boethius is said to have employed eighteen laborious years in the schools of Athens, 102 which were supported by the zeal, the learning, and the diligence of Proclus and his disciples. The reason and piety of their Roman pupil were fortunately saved from the contagion of mystery and magic, which polluted the groves of the academy ; but he imbibed the spirit, and imitated the method, of his dead and living masters, who attempted to reconcile the strong and subtle sense of Aristotle with the devout contemplation and sublime fancy of Plato. After his return to Rome and his marriage with the daughter of his friend, the [Eusti- patrician Symmachus, Boethius still continued, in a palace of ivory and marble, 103 to prosecute the same studies. 104 The church was edified by his profound defence of the orthodox creed against the Arian, the Eutychian, and the Nestorian heresies ; and the Catholic unity was explained or exposed in a formal treatise by the indifference of three distinct though con- substantial persons. 105 For the benefit of his Latin readers, his genius submitted to teach the first elements of the arts and sciences of Greece. The geometry of Euclid, the music of Pythagoras, the arithmetic of Nicomachus, the mechanics of Archimedes, the astronomy of Ptolemy, the theology of Plato, and the logic of Aristotle, with the commentary of Porphyry, were translated and illustrated by the indefatigable pen of the Roman senator. And he alone was esteemed capable of de- 102 The Athenian studies of Boethius are doubtful (Baronius, a.d. 510, No. 3, from a spurious tract, De Discipline Scholarum), and the term of eighteen years is doubtless too long ; but the simple fact of a visit to Athens is justified by much internal evidence (Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. torn. iii. p. 524-527), and by an expression (though vague and ambiguous) of his friend Cassiodorius (Var. i. 45), " longe positas [leg. poeitus] Athenas introisti ". [This expression is purely figura- tive and there is no evidence that Boethius had ever visited Athens. Cp. Gregoro- vius, Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter, i. p. 54.] 103 [Glass.] 104 Bibliothecse comptos ebore ac vitro parietes, &c. (Consol. Phil. 1. i. pros. v. p. 74). The epistles of Ennodius (vi. 6 ; vii. 13 ; viii. 1, 31, 37, 40 [271, 318, 320, 408, 415, 418, ap. Vogel]), and Cassiodorius (Var. i. 39 [? 45] ; iv. 6 [?] ; ix. 21 [?]), afford many proofs of the high reputation which he enjoyed in his own times. It is true that the bishop of Pavia wanted to purchase of him an old house at Milan, and praise might be tendered and accepted in part of payment. 105 [The genuineness of these theological treatises is proved by a positive state- ment in the Anecdoton Holderi.]