Latin Literature of the Empire Poetry Author:Alfred Gudeman Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: PHAEDRVS Phaedrtfs, a freedman of Augustus, was, according to his own statement, born in Pieria (in Macedon), and came to Italy when very young. Later in life... more », after the first two books of his fables had becn published, he secms to have incurred the displeasure of Sejauus, but was probably saved from the imminent destruction of which he speaks (Bk. in. prologue) by the opportune fall of that all-powerful minister of Tiberius, in 31 a.D. The fifth book was composed in the poet's old age; he must, therefore, have survived the reign of Caligula, possibly even that of Claudius (41-54). The fables of Phaedrus that have come down to us are divided into five books, containing in all ninety-threc poems, a total of 1534 iambic senarii. But this does not represent all he wrote, as is made evident by the small number of fables that make up the second book, and by cross-references to others not found in the extant collection. Phaedrus's claim to distinction rests not on any originality of thought or high poetic qualities, but solely on his being the first to introduce into Latin literature the Aesopian fable as an independent branch for poetic treatment, an achievement which, as the poet himself predicted, insured his immortality. But his fame was slow in coming. Seneca (ad Polyb. VIII. 27) and Quintilian (I. 9, 2) secm to ignore him deliberately, owing perhaps to his ignoble origin, and he is once—but disparagingly—referred to by Martial (ill. 20, 5). Thereafter, excepting a casual allusion in his imitator Avianus, we lose sight of him until the Middle Ages, when his fables were turned into prose and widely circulated. The original poetical versions were not printed till 1596, from which time the poet's popularity never waned. The style of Phaedrus is singularly transparent, simp...« less