Commentary Par X 121-129

In the first of these three tercets, as a unique instance among this bevy of illuminati, Dante calls attention to the importance of a particular soul, a signal honor done Boethius, the author of the De consolatione Philosophiae.  Dante mentions him, always with this particular text in mind, some dozen times in Convivio (first in Conv.I.ii.13).  He was active in the first half of the sixth century, holding the consulship at Rome, but earned the displeasure of the emperor, Theodoric, who imprisoned him at Pavia and finally had him put to death by torture.  See the note to verse 128.

There is a possibility that Dante was aware of the problematic nature of Boethius's Christian faith.  He was a convert, and subsequently wrote Christian apologetic works; but defenders of his orthodoxy are hard put to explain the total absence of overt Christian reference in the Consolatio.  A good deal of effort has gone into that enterprise, but one has the nagging feeling that Nicholas Trivet was perhaps justified in claiming that Boethius, in this last stage, was not a Christian, but a neo-platonist.  For a review of the entire issue, see Courcelle (Cour.1967.1).  For discussion of Dante's possible sense that the Consolatio was not all it should have been, see Hollander (Holl.1975.1), pp. 353-55, 361-62.  For a more recent attempt to deal with the question, see Giuseppina Mezzadroli (Mezz.1990.1), pp. 49-50.

See Trucchi (DDP Trucchi.Purg.X.1-6) for the notion that, where Aquinas (ST Supp., q. 69, a. 2) says that only some will have to spend time in Purgatory before they pass on to Heaven, Dante has all go, with exceptions of those like Boethius, Francis, and Cacciaguida, the auspicious few, according to Isidoro del Lungo (in an unspecified text); i.e., Dante's view is the exact counterpart, if in opposition, to that of Thomas.  See C.Par.XI.109-117.