Roman patrician, born c. A.D. 480 - died 524. Son of the consul for 487, consul himself in 510. A confident of the Ostrogoth King Theodoric for a long time, he became involved in a charge of high treason against his friend Albinus, was thrown into prison and executed. He wrote in prison the De consolatione philosophiae, a dialogue between himself and a figure representing philosophy, interspersed after the fashion of the Menippean Satire with verses in various metres.