The Hope Collection at Oxford contains a completely different portrait in a print, which gives no authority.

I have ventured to use as a frontispiece a reproduction from a plaster-cast in the Ashmolean Museum, taken from an ivory diptych preserved in the Bibliotheca Quiriniana at Brescia, which represents Narius Manlius Boethius, the father of the philosopher.

Portraiture of this period is so rare that it seemed that, failing a likeness of the author himself, this authentic representation of his father might have interest, as giving the consular dress and insignia of the time, and also as illustrating the decadence of contemporary art.

The consul wears a richly-embroidered cloak; his right hand holds a staff surmounted by the Roman eagle, his left the _mappa circensis,_ or napkin used for starting the races in the circus; at his feet are palms and bags of money--prizes for the victors in the games.
For permission to use this cast my thanks are due to the authorities of the Ashmolean Museum, as also to Mr.T.W.Jackson, Curator of the Hope Collection, who first called my attention to its existence.
I have to thank my brother, Mr.L.James, of Radley College, for much valuable help and for correcting the proof-sheets of the translation.
The text used is that of Peiper, Leipsic, 1874.
PROEM.
Anicus Manlius Severinus Boethius lived in the last quarter of the fifth century A.D., and the first quarter of the sixth.

He was growing to manhood, when Theodoric, the famous Ostrogoth, crossed the Alps and made himself master of Italy.