How did Boethius reconcile divine foreknowledge with human free will?

Boethius's solution to the apparent contradiction between divine foreknowledge and human free will is one of the most elegant philosophical moves in the Christian tradition: God does not foreknow the future but rather knows all events in an eternal present (nunc stans), seeing past, present, and future simultaneously the way a mountaintop observer sees an entire valley at once. Since God's knowledge does not precede events in time but coexists with them in eternity, it cannot be the cause of human choices — our freedom remains intact. This solution influenced Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and virtually all subsequent medieval treatments of the problem. The Consolation was written while Boethius awaited execution on charges of treason — a biographical fact that lends unusual weight to its philosophical argument: his insistence on human freedom and divine providence was not abstract speculation but a response to his own unjust condemnation.