Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (c. 475-525 CE) was born into an ancient, patrician Roman family that had converted to Christianity. After the death of his father, who had been a Roman consul, Boethius was raised by a patrician named Quintus Symmachus, who instilled in him a love of philosophy and learning. Boethius married Symmachus's daughter Rusticiana and the couple had two sons, both of whom became consuls.

Boethius entered the service of King Theodoric the Ostrogoth and became a senator at the young age of 25. In 522, he was appointed magister officiorum, one of the highest posts in the Roman government. The Roman empire had reached its zenith under Emperor Trajan in the second century CE, and by the following century it had split into two halves, a Western empire governed from Rome and an Eastern empire governed from Constantinople.

By the fifth century, notable tensions were growing between different factions in the Roman empire. These included tensions between the western and eastern blocs, between the Roman aristocracy and Germanic rulers like Theodoric, and between Catholic and Arian Christians (Theodoric belonging to the latter camp). The Arians were a sect of Christians, defined as heretical by the Catholic Church, who did not believe that Jesus Christ was fully divine.