I was pondering thus in silence and using my pen to set down so tearful a complaint, there appeared standing over my head a woman's form, whose countenance was full of majesty, whose eyes shone as with fire and whose power of insight surpassed that of all men. His visitor is a metaphorical figure whom Boethius terms Lady Philosophy. Lady Philosophy is carrying a pile of classical books in one hand and a sceptre in the other and she has come to visit Boethius in his cell in order to remind him of some of the fundamental truths of his favourite subject, largely as defined by the Stoic school of Greece and Rome. That she should have dropped in on him was, in a sense, no surprise. In the classical world, philosophy was not an abstract academic discipline. It was a set of tools specifically designed to help one live and die well, with particular relevance at the darkest moments. Lady Philosophy begins by gently chiding Boethius for flaring up against his fate. She reminds him, as Stoic philosophers had constantly stressed, that human beings are not in control of most of what happens to them. Our destiny is in large measure in the hands of a devilishly powerful, seductive goddess whom the Romans knew as Fortuna, the goddess of fortune. This figure was a central deity in the Roman pantheon and was represented across the Roman world on coins and statues. She was typically depicted holding a cornucopia in one hand, overflowing with fruit and luxuries, and on the other leaning on a tiller, a marker of her capacity to direct people's fates. Depending on her mood, fortune might either shower us with gifts or, with a blithe smile, steer us towards catastrophe. To be a philosopher means to understand all that fortune controls, to resist her blandishments, to know never to put complete faith in the things that are, ultimately, always in the hands of an immoral and reckless force, and to prepare for the day when we may have to surrender her gifts at a stroke.

So, we are starting to see some tensions flaring up again in this part of the South China Sea.

Where do you think this could go next because we keep seeing these tensions flaring up over and over?

The extremely destructive civil war in South Sudan ended in a fragile peace agreement despite violence still flaring up in the devastated young country.

Well, let's hear from our Southeast Asia correspondent, Jonathan Head, who's in the Surin province near the Thai-Cambodian border, where some of that conflict's been flaring up.

A couple of weeks back, I visited exactly that part where we're seeing now the conflict flaring up again in Sisaket border province.

But do you think the market has completely moved over the risk of geopolitical tensions flaring up?

It is very easy to see tho that violence flaring up again.

In the Middle East, tensions are flaring up once again after the U.S.