Phaedrus

The Latin fabulist

c. 15 BC – c. 50 AD

Latin Imperial

Phaedrus was born around 15 BC in Thrace and came to Rome as a slave in the household of Augustus. He was freed and became the first Latin poet to write a collection of verse fables, adapting and expanding the tradition attributed to Aesop.

His five books of fables are written in clean, elegant senarii (iambic trimeters). The stories are brief and pointed — the fox and the grapes, the wolf and the lamb, the frog and the ox — and their morals are sharp observations about power, hypocrisy, and the vulnerability of the weak. Phaedrus writes with the clarity of a man who has been a slave and knows how the world works.

Works (2)

1
Fabulae prose
Latin verse fables in the tradition of Aesop. Phaedrus — a freed slave — uses animals to comment on power, justice, and the vulnerability of the weak....

6 books
664 lines
2
Saturae prose
Aesop's fables retold in elegant Latin verse. Phaedrus — a freed slave of Augustus — adds his own fables to the collection, using animal stories to co...

6 books
664 lines

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