The Athenian studies of Boethius are doubtful, (Baronius, A.D. 510, No. 3, from a spurious tract, De Disciplina Scholarum,) and the term of eighteen years is doubtless too long: but the simple fact of a visit to Athens is justified by much internal evidence, (Brucker, Hist. Crit. Philosoph. tom. iii. p. 524 - 527,) and by an expression (though vague and ambiguous) of his friend Cassiodorus, (Var. i. 45,) "longe positas Athenas intrioisti."