Sailing from Byzantium Read Online Free Page A

religious tolerance, for he and his Goths were Arian Christians, and as such they were not in communion with the main body of the church. ∗ The Goths had been converted during the fourth century, when Arianism had powerful support, especially among the imperial heirs of the dynasty of Constantine. Arianism was later declared heretical, but not before the Goths and most of the other German tribes had adopted it. In an age in which religious persecution was almost a matter of course, Theoderic's policy was one of “separate but equal.” In Ravenna today, next to Theoderic's Arian cathedral, visitors may find the charming Arian baptistery, where Goths received baptism, and which was built to balance the grander Orthodox baptistery adjoining the city's main cathedral.
    The baptistery of the Orthodox was in fact the one used by the Romans. Since the church had not yet split along the lines that would later divide it, of Roman Catholic and Byzantine or Greek Orthodox, either term would do:
catholic
(“universal”) and
orthodox
(“right-believing”) were used freely in both Rome and Constantinople.
    It was now that the earliest cracks appeared in the edifice. From 484 to 519, when Boethius was growing up and beginning his service in Theoderic's government, the church underwent its first East-West schism. It arose when the pope excommunicated the patriarch of Constantinople over the question of how to resolve another heresy, that of the Monophysites. † In Constantinople, the emperor sided with thepatriarch, while in Rome the powers that be supported the pope, and so the whole controversy became highly political, alienating the remaining local Roman elites from the imperial government back in Constantinople.
    Theoderic, whose constitutional position was at best ambiguous, benefited from the schism, for their hostility to Constantinople made the Roman elites much more willing to cozy up to the Arian Goths. As long as Theoderic could play Rome and Constantinople against each other, his position between them was relatively secure. In 518, however, a humble soldier named Justin was acclaimed as emperor. From the start, the power behind Justin's throne was his nephew Peter Sabbatius, who promptly took the name Justinian, and who seems to have engineered his uncle's elevation. Determined to restore unity, Justinian took part personally in the negotiations to end the schism, and his efforts bore fruit the following year. With pope and patriarch once more in communion, Theoderic suddenly found himself on shaky ground.
    It was against this background—the successful resolution of the schism—that Theoderic decided to arrest, try, imprison, torture, and eventually execute his
magister officio-rum,
his master of offices, the highest-ranking and most honored minister in his civil administration, his learned and versatile subject Boethius. The charge was treason, Procopius tells us, “setting about a revolution,” a false accusation that Procopius claims was trumped up by other Romans, jealous of Boethius’ wealth and standing, who managed to hoodwink the otherwise perspicacious Theoderic.
    It's a typically vague reference, for Procopius tends to be long on action and short on insight. Boethius himself gives a fuller account in
The Consolation of Philosophy,
which he composed in prison as he awaited execution. Soon afterBoethius wrote this influential masterpiece—a complex and poignant mix of poetry and prose that would be second only to the Bible in its influence in the West during the Middle Ages—the sentence was carried out. Boethius, we're told, was first tortured by having a rope tightened around his forehead until his eyes began to pop out, and then he was clubbed to death.
    As Procopius observes, the torture and execution of Boethius are difficult to square with Theoderic's reputation for enlightened liberality. While Procopius implies that Theoderic was manipulated by Boethius’ enemies in the senate, many observers have