Editing Theodoric the Great (section)

==Religion==
In 522 the philosopher [[Boethius]] became his ''magister officiorum'' (head of all the government and court services). Boethius was a Roman aristocrat and Christian humanist, who was also a philosopher, poet, theologian, mathematician, astronomer, translator and commentator on Aristotle and other Greek luminaries.{{sfn|Koenigsberger|1987|pp=43–44}} It is hard to overestimate this one-time servant and eventual victim of Theodoric for his influence on philosophy, particularly Christian philosophy, throughout the Middle Ages. Boethius' treatises and commentaries became textbooks for medieval students, and the great Greek philosophers were unknown except for his Latin translations.{{sfn|Koenigsberger|1987|p=44}}{{efn|[[Cassiodorus]] succeeded Boethius as Theodoric's ''magister'' in 523. The pliant historian and courtier could be counted on to provide refined touches to official correspondence. "To the monarch you [Cassiodorus] were a friendly judge and an honored intimate. For when he became free from his official cares, he looked to your conversation for the precepts of the sages, that he might make himself a worthy equal to the great men of old. Ever curious, he desired to hear about the courses of the stars, the tides of the sea, and legendary fountains, that his earnest study of natural science might make him seem to be a veritable philosopher in the purple" (Cassiodorus' letterbook, ''Variae'' 9.24.8).}} The execution of Boethius did nothing to dissipate tensions between Arians and Catholics but merely raised additional questions about barbarian imperial legitimacy.{{sfn|Heydemann|2016|p=32}} [[File:Ravenna, sant'apollinare nuovo, ext. 01.JPG|thumb|The [[Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo]], the church of the [[Palace of Theodoric]] in Ravenna]]

Theodoric was of the [[Arianism|Arian (nontrinitarian) faith]], and in his final years he was no longer the disengaged Arian patron of religious toleration that he had seemed earlier in his reign. "Indeed, his death cut short what could well have developed into a major persecution of Catholic churches in retaliation for measures taken by Justinian in Constantinople against Arians there."{{sfn|O'Donnell|1995}}
Despite the Byzantine ''[[caesaropapism]]'', which conflated imperial and ecclesiastical authority in the same person—whereby Theodoric's Arian beliefs were tolerated under two separate emperors—the fact remained that to most clergy across the Eastern Empire, Theodoric was a heretic.{{sfn|Mango|2002|p=14}} At the end of his reign quarrels arose with his Roman subjects and the Byzantine emperor [[Justin I]] over the matter of Arianism. These quarrels ultimately led to the martyrdom of Boethius and [[Pope John I]] by starvation in 524 and 526, respectively. Relations between the two realms deteriorated, although Theodoric's military abilities dissuaded the Byzantines from waging war against him. After his death, that reluctance faded quickly.{{sfn|Vasiliev|1950|pp=321–328}}