Boethius wrote the Consolation while in prison in Pavia, awaiting execution on a trumped-up charge of treason. He died in 524 AD, having been tortured, strangled and bludgeoned to death.

In the 6th century AD, a successful and intelligent Roman politician called Boethius found himself unjustly accused of treason. Trapped in his prison cell, awaiting a brutal execution, he found ...