Spring Boot - java.lang.IllegalStateException: ApplicationEventMulticaster not initialized - spring-boot

Question

Just created a quick and simple 'sandbox' application to test out Spring-boot.
I'm getting the following error when attempting to run it -regardless of the versioning (tried to drop down to 1.4.7.RELEASE as well).
Also, almost all of the answers I've read on other posts seems to indicate that there's a mismatch in the versions somewhere -but how is that possible in this case? I was attempting to use the parent to avoid versioning conflicts to begin with.
POM
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>com.sandbox.springboot</groupId>
<artifactId>SpringBootSandbox</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>SpringBootSandbox</name>
<packaging>war</packaging>
<properties>
<java.version>1.8</java.version>
</properties>
<parent>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
<version>1.5.8.RELEASE</version>
</parent>
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
</dependency>
</dependencies>
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
ApplicationRunner
#SpringBootApplication//(scanBasePackages = "com.sandbox")
#ComponentScan("com.sandbox")
public class ApplicationRunner extends SpringBootServletInitializer {
#Override
protected SpringApplicationBuilder configure(SpringApplicationBuilder application) {
return application.sources(ApplicationRunner.class);
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(ApplicationRunner.class, args);
}
}
Exception
2017-10-20 10:48:42.483 WARN 8828 --- [ main] ationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext : Exception encountered during context initialization - cancelling refresh attempt: org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'org.springframework.aop.config.internalAutoProxyCreator': Initialization of bean failed; nested exception is java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org/aspectj/lang/annotation/Around
2017-10-20 10:48:42.485 ERROR 8828 --- [ main] o.s.b.f.s.DefaultListableBeanFactory : Destroy method on bean with name 'org.springframework.boot.context.properties.ConfigurationPropertiesBindingPostProcessor' threw an exception
java.lang.IllegalStateException: ApplicationEventMulticaster not initialized - call 'refresh' before multicasting events via the context: org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.AnnotationConfigEmbeddedWebApplicationContext#2805c96b: startup date [Fri Oct 20 10:48:42 EDT 2017]; root of context hierarchy
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.getApplicationEventMulticaster(AbstractApplicationContext.java:414) [spring-context-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.context.support.ApplicationListenerDetector.postProcessBeforeDestruction(ApplicationListenerDetector.java:97) ~[spring-context-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DisposableBeanAdapter.destroy(DisposableBeanAdapter.java:253) ~[spring-beans-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.destroyBean(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:578) [spring-beans-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.destroySingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:554) [spring-beans-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.destroySingleton(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:961) [spring-beans-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.destroySingletons(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:523) [spring-beans-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.destroySingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:968) [spring-beans-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.destroyBeans(AbstractApplicationContext.java:1030) [spring-context-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:556) [spring-context-4.3.9.RELEASE.jar:4.3.9.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.boot.context.embedded.EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.refresh(EmbeddedWebApplicationContext.java:122) [spring-boot-1.4.7.RELEASE.jar:1.4.7.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refresh(SpringApplication.java:762) [spring-boot-1.4.7.RELEASE.jar:1.4.7.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.refreshContext(SpringApplication.java:372) [spring-boot-1.4.7.RELEASE.jar:1.4.7.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:316) [spring-boot-1.4.7.RELEASE.jar:1.4.7.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1187) [spring-boot-1.4.7.RELEASE.jar:1.4.7.RELEASE]
at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1176) [spring-boot-1.4.7.RELEASE.jar:1.4.7.RELEASE]
at com.sandbox.configuration.ApplicationRunner.main(ApplicationRunner.java:31) [classes/:na]

Answer 1

After some playing around... and checking other Spring boot setups, I adjusted my ApplicationRunner as follows, and it seems to run without error now. I'm still looking into what the difference is between these approaches and why this one works.
#SpringBootApplication
#ComponentScan("com.sandbox")
public class BootApplicationRunner implements ApplicationRunner {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
SpringApplication.run(BootApplicationRunner.class, args);
}
public void run(ApplicationArguments args) throws Exception {
}
}