Boethius (c ad 475-525) Eminent Roman under Gothic Emperor Theodoric wrote the Consoloation of Philosophy while a political prisoner awaiting execution. His philosophical thoughts were highly regarded during the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Enlightenment, especially by Chaucer, Dante and Casanova.
As a gambler, Casanova shared Boethius' pagan view of fortune.
THE CONSOLING THOUGHTS OF BOETHIUS
(All quotes are from a 1969 Penguin Books edition translated by V.E.Watts)
Boethius' "The Consolation of Philosophy, " a mix of prose and poetry, is written from the point of view of the author, condemned to death, talking to himself in jail as he awaits execution, asking himself if there is anything in all the reading and studying he has undertaken that is doing him any good whatsoever, now, when he could use the help.
Just as he is indulging in sensuous feelings of despair, seduced by the "Slut Goddess" of Poetry, suddenly the Goddess of Reason appears, as "...a woman standing over me. She was of awe-inspiring appearance, her eyes burning and keen beyond the usual power of men...."
The Goddess of Reason explains how she has helped other mortals in comparable circumstances, such as Socrates who "won a victorious death with me at his side."
Boethius says he was framed for following "the ruling of Socrates that it is quite wrong to assent to falsehood and conceal truth" and that he now faces execution based on forged letters; that the forgers had confessed but their confessions were being ignored. He knows he is doomed:
"But there is no freedom left to hope for. If only there were I would have replied with the same retort as Canius made to the Emperor Caligula when he was accused of being involved in a plot against him. 'If I had know of it,' he said, 'you would not.'"
"...the world does not judge actions on their merit, but on their chance results..."
"It is always the unfortunate who are first to be deserted by the goodwill of men...I will just say that the final burden which adversity heaps on her victims is that when some accusation is made against them, they are believed to have deserved all that they suffer."
Reason doesn't claim to always win. Indeed, she confesses that valuing reason and justice can lead to tragic suffering because "It is hardly surprising if we are driven by the blasts of storms when our chief aim on this sea of life is to displease wicked men."
"When their tactical forces attack us in superior numbers, our general conducts a tactical withdrawal of his forces to a strong point..."
"So put your faith in transient luck,
And trust in wealth's mortality!
In law eternal it lies decreed
That naught from change is ever freed."
(Book Two, Part 3)
In detachment, philosophy as Boethius sees it, there is strength:
"If first you rid yourself of hope and fear
You have disarmed the tyrant's wrath:
But whosoever quakes in fear or hope,
Drifting and losing mastery,
Has cast away his shield, has left his place,
And binds the chain with which he will be bound."
(Book One Part 4)
Anyway, detachment's the only way to deal with escalating appetites because no matter how favorably fortune may shine:
"The human race would still repeat
Its querulous complaints.
...
"Rapacious greed soon swallows all
And opens other gaping mouths;
No reins will serve to hold in check
The headlong course of appetite
Once such largess has fanned the flames
Of lust to have and hold:
No man is rich who shakes and groans
Convinced that he needs more."
Boethius then says rudely thanks a whole lot for the pretty words:
"...as soon as your words stop sounding in our ears the mind is weighed down again by its deep seated melancholy."
"In all adversity of fortune, the most wretched kind is once to have been happy." (According to translator/scholar V.E.Watts: "This famous saying, like others in the Consolation, is echoed by later writers: cf. Dante, Hell, V, 121 ff.")
Whatever you do, counsels Boethius, don't count on happiness - Reasonning proves it's the worst thing you could do:
"...the man who is borne along by happiness which can at any time fail, either knows or does not know its unreliability. If he does not know it, what kind of happiness can there be in the blindness of ignorance? And if he does know it, he can't avoid being afraid of losing that which he knows can be lost. And so a continuous fear prevents him being happy."
"How splendid, then, the blessing of mortal riches is! Once won, they never leave you carefree again."
"There is nothing, in fact, which one man can do to another, which he cannot himself suffer at the hands of someone else."
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