Babrius and Phaedrus

About this book

BABRIUS is the reputed author of a collection (discovered in the 19th century) of more than 125 fables based on 'Aesop's', in Greek verse. He may have been a 'Hellenised' Roman living in Asia Minor during the late 1st century after Christ. The fables are all in one metre and in very good style, terse, humorous and pointed. Some are original. PHAEDRUS, born in Macedonia, flourished in the early half of the 1st century after Christ. Apparently a slave set free by the Emperor Augustus (died A.D. 14) he lived in Italy and began to write 'Aesopian' fables. When he offended Sejanus the powerful official of the Emperor Tiberius, he was punished, but not silenced. The fables, in 5 books, are in lively terse and simple Latin verse not lacking in dignity. They not only amuse and teach but also satirise social and political life in Rome. In the later Middle Ages he was forgotten except in prose-versions of the fables.