Telling Tales on Caesar: Roman Stories from Phaedrus

by Phaedrus, John Henderson (Editor)

This book contains a dozen entertaining stories written in colloquial Latin verse newly translated and commented on by John Henderson. The author, Phaedrus, was a freeman of Augustus who put Aesop's Fables into five books of verse during the reign of Tiberius. He included a number of stories and anecdotes on everyday life situations as well as assorted satirical bits. Rarely read today, they take the reader to the heart of ancient Rome, into everyday corners of classical life and culture, high and low, during the reigns of the first emperors, Augustus and Tiberius.

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Gaius Julius Phaedrus or Phaeder (c. 15 BC–c. 50 AD) was a 1st-century AD Roman fabulist and the first versifier of a collection of Aesop's fables into Latin. Nothing is recorded of his life except for what can be inferred from his poems, and there was little mention of his work during late antiquity. It was not until the discovery of a few imperfect manuscripts during and following the Renaissance that his importance emerged, both as an author and in the transmission of the fables.

Reviews

[Drianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent work of scholarship (as one would expect from Henderson). The more I read Phaedrus, the more I like him and find his work much more interesting than I would've thought at first glance.