After all, the title of the treatise is 'Philosophiae Consolatio;' and however vigorous a literature of philosophy may in the course of centuries have grown up in the Christian domain, in the sixth century the remembrance of the old opposition between Christianity and Philosophy was perhaps still too strong for a writer to do anything more than stand neutral as to the distinctive claims of Christianity, when he had for the time donned the cloak of the philosopher.
The Bucolic Poem of Boethius.
We learn from the fragment before us that Boethius also wrote a 'Bucolic Poem.' This is an interesting fact, and helps to explain the facility with which he breaks into song in the midst of the 'Consolation.' It may have been to this effort of the imagination that he alluded when he said at the beginning of that work—
'Carmina qui quondam studio florente peregi
Flebilis, heu, moestos cogor inire modos.'
We would gladly know something more of this 'Bucolic Poem' indited by the universal genius, Boethius.
Cassiodorus.
III. As for Cassiodorus himself, the additional information furnished by this fragment has been already discussed in the [foregoing chapter]. That he was Consilarius to his father during his Praefecture, and that in that capacity he recited an eloquent panegyric on Theodoric, which was rewarded by his promotion to the high office of the Quaestorship, are facts which we learn from this fragment only; and they are of high importance, not only for the life of Cassiodorus but for the history of Europe at the beginning of the Sixth Century, because they make it impossible to assign to any letter in the 'Variae' an earlier date than 500.