The Fables of Phaedrus

Phaedrus (c. 15 BC-c.AD 50), a Roman fabulist, was probably a Thracian slave, born in Pydna of Macedonia (Roman province) and lived in the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius and Claudius. He is recognized as the first writer to latinize entire books of fables, using the iambic metre Greek prose of the Aesop tales. The first edition of the five books of Phaedrus was published by Pithou at Troyes in 1596 from a manuscript now in the possession of the Marquis of Rosanbo. Near the beginning of the 18th century, a manuscript of Perotti (1430- 1480), archbishop of Siponto (Manfredonia, in Puglia), was discovered at Parma containing sixty-four fables of Phaedrus, of which some thirty were previously unknown. For some time the authenticity of these new fables was disputed, but they are now generally accepted as genuine fables of Phaedrus. In the Middle Ages Phaedrus exercised a considerable influence through the prose versions of his fables, the oldest existing one seems to be that known as the Anonymus Nilanti. But the largest and most influential of the prose versions of Phaedrus is that which bears the name of Romulus. It contains eightythree fables and is as old as the 10th century.