Throughout the millennium that separates the end of Antiquity from the Renaissance, Boethius' authority was such that it could only be compared with that of Aristotle and Augustine of Hippo. This celebrity was due, above all, to his last work, the Consolation of Philosophy, written while awaiting his execution in the Pavia prison, which elevated him to the category of exemplary scholar. The text not only shows what philosophy can offer the individual in moral terms, but is also an extraordinary compendium of the doctrines of the classical philosophers—Plato, Aristotle, Seneca, Virgil, Horace, Cicero, Ovid, Plutarch and Juvenal— for whom wisdom consisted in leading a kind, dignified and respectable life. A work whose influence lasted, beyond philosophy, in the works of great writers such as Chaucer, Boccaccio and Dante.