Phaedrus the Fabulous
Author(s): Edward Champlin
Source: The Journal of Roman Studies, Vol. 95 (2005), pp. 97-123
Published by: Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20066819
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The Fabulous
Phaedrus
CHAMPLIN
EDWARD
I
to the third book of his fables, Phaedrus complains bitterly to a patron.
In the Prologue
on the slopes of Olympus,
Even though he, Phaedrus, was born like the Muses
and even
not
to
sweet
he
to
his
life
the
devoted
but
the
of
has
of
lucre
poetry
gathering
study
though
(docto labori), it is only with scorn that he is received among the company of poets (3 pr.
1-25).
But
then
to business:
Sed iam quodcumque
cum
regem
Librum
exarabo
Ad
foret,
perductus
tertium
et meritis
Honori
fuerit, ut dixit Sinon,
Dardaniae
stilo,
Aesopi
ilium tuis.
dedicans
(3 pr. 27-30)
But now, 'whatever may come of it' (as Sinon said when
I will trace out a third book with Aesop's
Dardania),
recognition
of
your
honour
he was
led before the King of
it to you in
pen, dedicating
and worth.
The poet refers to the second book of the Aeneid
the wretched
Sinon
(z.yjfi.), where
addresses King Priam: 'Cuneta equidem tibi, rex, fuerit quodcumque,
fatebor / vera', 'I
shall confess to you the whole
truth, O king, come what may'. He then tells the Trojans a
them to drag theWooden
Horse
into their city. Troy falls.
pack of lies, and persuades
to Sinon at Troy in the autobiographical
That Phaedrus drew attention
to
Prologue
to the same Book 3. There
Book 3 is curious, in the light of what he offers in the Epilogue
he repeats his appeal to his patron, and concludes with complaint
about the undeserved
insults which he has suffered from unnamed detractors:
Qui
sint,
requires;
Ego,
quondam
'Palam muttire
Dum
'Who
are
unshaken,
a man
of
sanitas
legi
apparebunt
quam
puer
plebeio
constabit,
piaculum
pulchre
ask. They
will
be seen
you
they?'
a maxim
I shall keep well
in mind
to mutter
in public'
low birth
tempore.
sententiam,
est',
meminero.
in time.
As
that
I once
(3 ep.
for me,
read
32-5)
as
long
as a boy:
as my wits
remain
'It is sacrilege
for
the words quoted come from Ennius' now lost tragedy Telephus. A son of Hercules,
it mistook
his
Telephus was the ruler of Mysia who repelled the Greek expedition when
an
In
for
the
battle
he
received
incurable
wound
from
the
of
kingdom
Troy.
spear
Achilles,
and Apollo's
oracle told him that only the thing that had hurt him could cure him. The
so Telephus went to Agamemnon
Greek navy was blown back to Greece,
as a
disguised
to
the
infant
and
threatened
kill
him
unless
Orestes,
beggar, kidnapped
Agamemnon
was more than eager to aid the kidnapper,
would help him. In fact, Agamemnon
since
another oracle had informed him that the Greeks would never get to Troy without
the
Achilles
then, at his request, rubbed rust from his spear into Tele
guidance of Telephus.
and itwas cured. Telephus
in return advised the Greeks of the proper course
phus' wound,
to steer for Troy, but he declined to join their expedition
since his wife was the daughter
of King Priam. The adage, that it is an offence requiring expiation
for a common man to
Here
JRS 95 (2005), pp. 97-123. ? World Copyright Reserved.
Exclusive Licence to Publish: The Society for the Promotion
of Roman
Studies 2005
EDWARD
98
CHAMPLIN
before the Greek
complain openly, was spoken by him in his beggarly disguise, presumably
kings gathered at Argos, or possibly by someone else rebuking him.1
to a
Thus Phaedrus'
third book ends as it begins, autobiographically,
with allusion
disguised Greek trickster, an apparent friend of Troy who would help to bring about the
The two passages happen to quote, explicitly and unusually,
lines from
city's destruction.
two great poets, Vergil and Ennius, and they happen to frame the middle of what
Rome's
contexts. We
would prove to be five books of poems. Both appear in autobiographical
know that Vergil's
Sinon, the outcast,
filthy and (in some versions of the story) self
was in reality of noble birth, first cousin to Ulysses, grandson of Autolycus
the
mutilated,
son of Hermes,
to some himself son of Sisyphus, King of Corinth. We also
and according
know that Ennius' Telephus,
the wounded
beggar, clad in his squalid stola, was in reality
a king, son of Hercules
the son of Jupiter, and of Auge, daughter of Aleus, King of Tegea.
to
Phaedrus'
'Phaedrus', the embittered,
elderly Greek freedman, in each case appropriates
himself words spoken by them in deception. The Aesopean moral was not to take anything
at face value: 'decipit frons prima multos'
(4.2.5-6). Was Phaedrus too a prince in disguise?
11
With
the new millennium,
Phaedrus and the ancient fable are ever more in fashion. Study
the poems of Phaedrus,
of the fable, including
stimulated
has been deservedly
by the
of the Graeco-Latin
of a massive history and taxonomy
fable, by the second
appearance
to the ancient fable, and by the first serious
edition of an excellent
brief introduction
in
of 'Aesop's Fables'. Phaedrus himself has received close attention
English translation
a host of scholarly
two important books and in a substantial commentary,
not to mention
is valuable, but they all share the assumption
that Phaedrus
papers.2 Each of these works
was who he seems to say he was, a Greek-born
to include himself in the
'freedman writing
high society of Latin letters', or 'a Greek freedman imbued with cynicism and stoicism, or
to the empire',
in general, a member of the more or less underground
moralism
opposition
or an author whose work offers 'the promise of a rare glimpse,
if through a glass darkly,
into the mental furniture of the man in the ancient (Hellenistic)
street'.3 But what if Phaed
rus was not who he claimed to be?
of the poet, deduced entirely from his poems,
Who was he? The standard biography
runs
more
or
less
as
follows:
1
est' was also quoted by Festus as coming from Ennius' Telephus
'Palam muttire plebeio piaculum
(128.2.4L), and
on the fragments of the plays
In his commentary
is confirmed
the attribution
by a fragment of Euripides'
Telephus.
of E. W. Handley
that the speaker was someone
of Ennius, H. D. Jocelyn supported
the suggestion
trying to silence
but neither attribution
'much more plausible',
(The Tragedies
(1967), 406?7). Not necessarily
of Ennius
Telephus
himself as the speaker.
sake Iwould
affects the interpretation
here; of course for symmetry's
prefer Telephus
2
to the Hellenistic
and from the Origins
F. Rodr?guez Adrados, History
Fable 1. Introduction
of the Graeco-Latin
201 (1999); History
Fable. 2. The Fable during
the Roman
of the Graeco-Latin
Age, Mnemosyne
Supplementum
Fable 3.
and in the Middle
207 (2000); History
of the Graeco-Latin
Ages, Mnemosyne
Supplementum
Empire
Fable, Mnemosyne
(2003)
236
Supplementum
(English
of the Graeco-Latin
N. Holzberg,
in Spanish,
Fable.
The Ancient
first appeared
of a work which
1979-1987);
in 1993,
in German
first appeared
of the second edition of a work which
An Introduction
(2002) (English translation
Stories from Phaedrus
Fables (2002); J. Henderson,
(2001);
2001); L. Gibbs, Aesop's
Telling Tales on Caesar. Roman
of Freedmen:
the Fables of
W. M. Bloomer,
and Literary Society at Rome
(1997) (ch. 3, 'The Rhetoric
Latinity
R. W. Lamb,
is also a full-scale
E. Oberg,
Phaedrus-Kommentar
Phaedrus',
(2000). There
bibliography,
73-109);
A Bibliography
Annales
Phaedriani,
(1998). Special praise is due to Gibbs
1596?1996.
of Phaedrus
(op. cit.), the first
some six hundred
of them arranged
in translation
of the congeries
of 'Aesop's
collection
Fables',
scholarly
Inventory
translation
thematically,
and
Documentation
and revision
and
to the collection
of both
translations
and
their original
Greek
and Latin
www.aesopica.net.
on this paper.
thanks to Denis Feeney and Bob Kaster for their comments
My
3
'The homing
Bloomer,
op. cit. (n. 2, 1999), 124; J. Henderson,
op. cit. (n. 2), 75; Adrados,
PCPS 203 (1977), 17-31, at 17.
theme in Phaedrus, App.Perott.16
Perry / 14 Postgate',
texts on her website,
instinct.
A folklore
THE
PHAEDRUS
He
was
born
15 B.c.
about
in Macedonia,
FABULOUS
99
in Pydna
probably
(3 pr.
as a
came
He
iyff.).
slave to Rome and was freed by Augustus. He probably had some pedagogic function
under Augustus
(cf. 2.5), under whom the first book of his
(cf. 3.10) and then Tiberius
poems
certain
Competitors
appeared.
as criticism
fables
praetorian
powerful
and
of
prefect
enviers
(2 ep.
regime.
They
Phaedrus
Sejanus.
tried
the morals
construed
3 ep. 3iff.)
to have
denounced
i$tt.;
seem
the
to bring
case
his
to
him
to
the
of
the
all
attention
of
the emperor by sending him the now completed Book 2 (2 ep. i2ff.). He composed Book
3 during his trial (3 ep. 22ff.), perhaps at the time of Sejanus' fall (a.D. 31). In its Prologue,
the poet begged his addressee, Eutychus, to intercede for him (with the emperor?) as he
had promised
(3 ep. 8ff.). In his old age he produced two more books, not part of the
original
plan.
are
They
to two men
addressed
otherwise
4 to Particulo
Book
unknown,
pr. iff.), and Book 5 to Philetus, who was a Greek and probably a freedman
(5.10.10). Phaedrus died around the middle of the first century.4
(4
like Eutychus
Although most of this is handed down through the scholarly literature, it is complete
stones of the edifice are his supposed
liberation by the
fantasy. The two foundation
and his supposed persecution
has any secure basis
emperor Augustus
by Sejanus. Neither
and without
them the Life of Phaedrus crumbles away.
The evidence that Phaedrus was a former slave is confined to the title
First, Augustus.
in manuscripts
of his poems: Pbaedri Augusti
liberti fabularum Aesopiarum.
Whence
that
as with so
information
itself to the poems, are unknown:
derives, and how it attached
much ancient poetic biography,
it need be no more than inference from the work itself?
as a man of very humble station ?
that is, through Phaedrus'
and from
self-presentation
as
the Aesopean
tradition of the fable
the literature of the downtrodden,
wherein
the slave
said what he dared not speak outright
in the surviving corpus does
(3 pr. 34-7). Nowhere
Phaedrus actually say, or even hint, that he had once been a slave.
His apparent servile origin, and the apparent assertion
that he was born of Thracian
have together even sug
ancestry on the slopes of Mount
(itself most dubious),
Olympus
some
to
as
must
a
to
that
he
been
Rome
have
child
after being captured in
gested
brought
the Thracian
Piso Frugi in 13-11 B.c., hence the putative birth
campaign of L. Calpurnius
of
date
15
b.c.,
repeated
from
source
source
to modern
without
notion
much
of
Piso.
?
Piso the consul of 15 b.c. did not bear the name Frugi, and his
inaccuracy aside
?
how the infant Phaedrus made his way up
campaign in Thrace is to be dated 12-10 b.c.
to Thrace from the area of Olympus,
on the southern border of Macedonia,
remains a
under the emperor Augustus
mystery.5 As to his being a pedagogue
(even, it has been sug
there is simply no evidence. Most
gested, to his grandson Lucius Caesar),
importantly of
Minor
even
all,
if he
was
Augustus himself.
One apparently
occurred
indeed
of
'freedman
simply
memoria
the
firm
mea
'Augusti
?
any
chronological
(3.10.8),
as
libertus',
emperor'
the manuscripts
?
not
emperor
is that a legal case
marker
therefore
written
down
that
assert,
of
necessarily
some
means
title
the
involving
emperor
Augustus
time
considerable
after
A.D. 14. Another
is the story involving Tiberius Caesar, which could have been composed
any time from August A.D. 14 on, that is, during Tiberius'
reign or after his death: the
(and so possibly after the emperor's retirement
episode is set at Tiberius' villa at Misenum
from
Rome
to
Campania
in A.D.
26),
but
there
is no
suggestion
that
as witness or as imperial
ally involved with either emperor, whether
be said, is there any sign within
the poems themselves
(as distinct
that he ever served in the imperial household.
manuscript)
4
the
poet
was
person
servant. Nor,
itmust
from the title in the
is a close rendition of the recent article 'Phaedrus'
in Der Neue Pauly 9 (2000), 708-9
(P. L. Schmidt).
B. E. Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus
(1965), following Delia Corte and after him De Lorenzi, of whose
biography
of Phaedrus Currie generously
'an ingenious
in the stitching
exercise
remarks,
together of every and any piece of
?
to make some kind of coherent whole
evidence
or credible according
to taste. An heroic
but the result is plausible
effort!'
'Phaedrus the Fabulist', ANRW
treatment of
Cf. the cheerful
(H. MacL.
Currie,
II, 32.1 (1984), 497-513).
the whole birth story by Henderson,
op. cit. (n. 2), 78-9.
5
This
IOO
EDWARD
he was
3 that
simply no hint
is likewise
Sejanus. There
Next,
2 or Book
CHAMPLIN
denounced
in the personal
to anyone,
anyone
by
or
that
to either Book
epilogues
saw
anyone
his
as
poems
attention
of the regime, or that he hoped to bring his case to the emperor's
(he
are
to
of
work
'cultivated
his
his
ears'):
bringing
complaints
purely literary,
speaks only
about envious detractors denying his bid for poetk glory. The claims about his political
to
in the Prologue
of the author's apologia
danger all seem to arise from interpretation
Book 3,11. 33-50, with its startling reference to Sejanus:
critical
cur
fabularum
Nunc,
brevi
sit
Servitus
docebo.
non
volebat
quae
quia
affectus
proprios
in fabellas
elusit
fictis
calumniamque
et cogitavi
quam
plura
in calamitatem
diligens
accusator
alius
Quodsi
si testis
iudex
alius,
faterer
esse
nee his dolorem
genus,
reliquerat
meam.
quaedam
Seiano
foret,
alius
delenirem
remediis.
si quis
errabit
sua,
45
erit commune
ad se quod
animi
nudabit
conscientiam,
Iwill
since
harm,
and eluded
notare
enim
?eque
verum
Now
me
excusatum
Huic
explain briefly why
velim
singulos
et mores
vitam
ipsam
40
denique,
tantis malis,
me
Suspicione
et rapiet
stulte
35
dicere,
transtulit,
iocis.
porro semita feci viam,
Ego illius [se. Aesopi]
dignum
inventum
obnoxia,
audebat
nihilo
omnium,
minus:
mens
est mihi,
ostendere.
hominum
the genre of fables was
censure
33-50)6
so exposed
invented. Servitude,
its true
to say, transferred
it wished
say what
of jesting with
the guise
under
made-up
not
it dared
(3 pr.
if anyone
other
than
Sejanus
were
the prosecutor,
or
indeed if anyone else were the judge, Iwould confess myself
and Iwould not soothe my grief with these remedies.
If anyone
goes
astray
in his
own
suspicion
and
applies
to
fables
stories.
I, in turn, have built a highway in his [Aesop's] path, and I have carefully
more things than he left behind, some of them to my misfortune.
Now
into
feelings
anyone
else
deserving
to himself
what
thought up
the witness,
or
of such troubles
really
pertains
Iwould hope to
to all alike, he will foolishly expose his own bad conscience. Nonetheless
be excused by him: for in fact it is not my intention to brand individuals, but to display
life
itself
and
the ways
of men
and women.
The gist of the lines is this: fables began as a way for slaves to say the otherwise unsay
to the legacy of Aesopean
able. Phaedrus has added considerably
fables, and some of his
if his accuser were a normal person, the
fables have harmed him. Then a counterfactual:
6
liberti Liber Fabularum
Phaedri Augusti
in this paper varies slightly from those of A. Guaglianone,
Note
also the
has been modified
throughout.
substantially
op. cit. (n. 5), and Perry's translation
in C. Zander,
Solutus vel Phaedri fabulae novae XXX
Phaedrus
(1921).
named after him
Pithou used for his editio princeps,
P (the manuscript
I. 38: 'illius porro' with the manuscripts
CR 34 (1920), 124
and R, and with A. E. Housman,
as the Codex Pithoeanus)
'Postgate's Phaedri Fabulae Aesopiae',
= A. E. Housman,
and F. R. D. Goodyear)
Classical
(1972), 1010.
(ed. J. Diggle
Papers of A. E. Housman
the comma
after
II. 39-40: as read by D. R. Shackleton
'Phaedriana',
Bailey,
AJP 99 (1978), 452, dropping
the ms. 'diligens'.
'reliquerat' and following
a choice
the reading of P, et rapiet, against Perry's et, rapiens,
1. 46: note that Guaglianone
silently adopts
=
is accordingly
here in these
modified
(1972), 1009. Perry's translation
(1920), 123
by Housman
already approved
three passages.
in PR; A. ?nnerfors,
'Textkritisches
for nudavit
is Pithou's
Note
also at 1. 47: the standard nudabit
suggestion
The
text
(1969) and Perry,
texts reconstituted
und Sprachliches
zu Phaedrus',
Hermes
115 (1987),
429-53,
at 450, considers
the latter possible.
PHAEDRUS
THE
IOI
FABULOUS
not solace himself with
these
and would
feel his troubles were deserved
poet would
a
a
monster
is
is
is
of
But
he
he
that
that
remedies
not,
Sejanus,
mean).
(whatever
might
iniquity, accuser, judge, and jury rolled into one, hence the poet's troubles are not deserved
and he does solace himself. But no one should be so foolish as to take his general obser
vations
personally.
What
is immediately
about
nothing
a trial,
obvious
certainly
is that there is nothing
nothing
the
about
criticism
here about
emperor.
is not
Sejanus
of the regime,
present,
merely
a Sejanus (and it is not at all clear that the four lines, with their conditional
verbs, are not
to
an
accusation
rather
than one
be
is
that
that
made,
might
referring
purely hypothetical,
that was actually made).7 The whole context is literary and resentful: the Prologue opens
about the writer's patron being too busy to read his poems, then moves
with complaints
to complaints
about not being accepted among the company of poets, then to the problem
of being misunderstood
victim, then to claims of future literary glory
by an unintended
Linus, and Orpheus. Two points follow from the mention of
alongside Aesop, Anacharsis,
is that he is dead, giving us a firm terminus post quern for the
Sejanus. One, obviously,
poem of 18 October A.D. 31. The other is that, like theWicked Witch of the East, he is not
only merely dead, he is really most sincerely dead: he is now a certified monster. That is to
say,
far
Phaedrus,
from
lamenting,
here
savages
his
detractor
as
a
Sejanus,
and
as
a man
that the poet's strictures are
who foolishly exposes his own bad conscience
by assuming
This is neither the first nor the last time that a note of robust
aimed at him personally.
truculence appears in the words of the humble 'freedman'.
markers
In short, so far as autobiography
goes, there are three explicit chronological
the poems: Book 3 was published
after the fall of Sejanus in A.D. 31; its author
within
the time of Augustus;
and he knew of course about Tiberius Caesar. Beyond
remembered
more
not
there
is
much
within
the body of the work: no birth around 15 b.c., no
these,
no
no
no
in the mid-first
death
trial,
century A.D., and a most dub
Sejanus,
teaching job,
ious connection with the imperial household.
m
The matter of Phaedrus' floruit can be dealt with briefly.
ad Polybium, written
The terminus post quern is provided by Seneca in his Consolatio
British triumph in
(a.D. 41-49) and not long before Claudius'
during his exile in Corsica
A.D.
44,
so
probably
in A.D.
43.
Polybius,
the
emperor's
powerful
freedman,
has
shown
his
into Latin and Vergil
into Greek. Perhaps now he
literary talent by translating Homer
tales, a task hitherto
might try to weave together with his usual charm fables and Aesopean
not attempted
et
Roman
'fabellas
quoque
by
genius:
Aesopeos
intemptatum
logos,
to Phaedrus' flimsy Augustan
Romanis
and
8.3). Committed
ingeniis opus' (Ad Polybium
Tiberian connections,
and to his putative sufferings under Sejanus, generations
of scholars
to explain this away.8 Nevertheless,
have positively
it is difficult to
contorted
themselves
a
not
his
this
exist
clearer
than
that
indication
fables
did
before
the reign of
imagine
Claudius.
7
sur les Fables de Ph?dre', Rome. La literature et
'Du nouveau
The point about a Sejanus is made by P. Grimai,
at 258.
l'histoire
(1986), 1, 253-62,
8
out a crooked will
cf. J. Henderson,
'The law is not mocked:
(Phaedrus 4.5)', in P. McKechnie
straightening
on Legal History
on his Eightieth
Like a Lawyer.
and General History
(ed.), Thinking
Essays
for John Crook
at 206 n. 10, delightedly
'Oceans of ink on this anti-testimonium
for
(2002), 213-30,
Birthday
naming names:
is his work
Phaedrus:
..., as too low-brow
..., under a cloud
..., as Greek
..., or through unscrupulous
ignored
flattery ...? Or hasn't Seneca heard of him yet from exile on his Corsican
crag? Or is this, instead, where Phaedrus
of "native Roman
wit"
got the idea from? ... Polybius might
frown, and Phaedrus might
grin, at the mention
(Romanis
ingeniis)\
I02
CHAMPLIN
EDWARD
Their
mid-8os,
terminus ante quern is equally assured. Martial
certainly imitates his works by the
and names him once, but there is a considerably
earlier citation. A pupil of the
jurist
pre-eminent
Cassius
that
reports
Longinus
was
Cassius
to call
accustomed
a partner
one partner received all the profit and the other partner ran all the risk, a
ship wherein
the
Unless we can imagine Phaedrus picking
leoninam societatem.
leonine partnership,
term up as he hung around the law school, Cassius must have taken his metaphor
from a
fable invented by the poet about the lion taking all the profits of his partnership with the
in A.D. 65.
other animals (1.5). The noble Cassius Longinus was exiled to Sardinia by Nero
He was recalled by Vespasian,
therefore in A.D. 69/70, and died (it is implied) soon there
after.9 That means that Phaedrus' first book existed by the time of Nero.
In brief: the fables of Phaedrus were not yet available around A.D. 43, and they (or at
least their first book) were in circulation by about A.D. 70.
IV
is: where was Phaedrus born? The poet could
to his third book:
than he is in the Prologue
The
important question
explicit about the matter
mater
enixa
Pierio
quern
Ego,
sancta Mnemosyne
tonanti
In quo
Curamque
Et laude
in coetum
tarnen
Fastidi?se
mother
iugo,
Iovi
artium
chorum,
peperit
natus
sim schola
in ipsa paene
eraserim
corde
habendi
penitus
in hanc
invicta
vitam
incubuerim,
Quamvis
my
be more
novies
Fecunda
I, whom
est
hardly
on
forth
brought
20
(3 pr.
recipior.
Pierian
the
there
ridge,
where
17-23)
sacred
Mnemosyne,
nine times fruitful, bore to thundering Jove the choir of theMuses; although Iwas all but
born in a school, and although I have entirely blotted from my mind all interest in
renown ?
yet even
property, and have devoted myself to this kind of life with matchless
so,
it is only
with
I am
that
distaste
into
admitted
the
company
of
poets.10
on the Pierian ridge, in the North
So, clearly, the poet was born near Mount Olympus,
obscure and contorted
of Greece. His origin seems to be confirmed by an extraordinarily
reassurance
to his patron, later in the same poem, that he is capable of his task:
Rem
me
professum
Si Phryx Aesopus
famam
Aeternam
Ego,
Cur
litteratae
somno
Threissa
9
cum
dicet
aliquis
gravem.
potuit, Anacharsis
condere
ingenio
Scytha
suo:
sum
Graeciae,
propior
qui
inerti deseram
decus?
patriae
gens
numeret
auctores
55
suos,
are collected
at Guaglianone,
op. cit. (n. 6), 117 (others can be found). Cassius
in
ab eo [sc. Nerone]
at Digest
Enchiridion):
1.2.2.52
'expulsus
(Pomponius,
was elderly:
diem suum obit.' Tacitus
implies at Ann. 16.9 that in A.D. 65 Cassius
et senectus eius expectabatur.'
The jurist and his leonine partnership
in Sardiniam
(Dig.
Cassius,
'deportatusque
of Phaedrus:
the works
are discussed
It is also highly
below.
J. P. Postgate,
likely that Seneca knew
17.2.29.2)
Martial:
Longinus:
Sardiniam,
the relevant passages
PIR2 C 501. His death
revocatus a Vespasiano
'Phaedrus and Seneca', CR 33 (1919), 19-24.
10
reads 'et
P has 'et laude invita in hanc vitam incubuerim';
The reading of 1. 22 is quite uncertain.
Guaglianone
on proposals
of
of Postgate,
the emendation
in hanc incubuerim'.
laude invicta vitam
building
Perry accepted
to this
'and have devoted myself
'nee Pallade hanc invita in vitam incubuerim',
Heinsius
and Bentley,
translating
and the presence of Pallas Athena
the favour of Pallas'. I find this reading quite gratuitous,
kind of life, not without
but I am inclined to
are unimportant
for present purposes,
is intrusive. The precise words
(Bentley's suggestion)
'with unconquered
'laude invita', in the sense of 'with grudging praise', or 'laude invicta',
stick with
praise', either
of which
seems
to fit the context
better.
THE
PHAEDRUS
Linoque
Apollo
saxa
cantu
Qui
Hebrique
hinc
Ergo
Perhaps
some will
Anacharsis
the
sit parens,
Musa
et domuit
livor,
race
Thracian
was
could,
Scythian,
exercise
the
by
(3 pr. 51-61)
a weighty
of
task. If Aesop
their
inborn
if
the Phrygian,
an
establish
talent,
belong more to the literary land of Greece,
indeed, considering
country's fame? Why
through
that the
was
that Apollo
the parent
of Linus,
and
that a
authors,
?
stones
moved
of his
of Orpheus
who
by the power
Orpheus
so
currents
in check
and held
the onrushing
of the Hebrus,
beasts,
in vain, when
lest you
lament
and
listen.
then,
Envy,
Away
linger
wild
were
to
they
at
shall
glory
perpetual
60
gemas,
its own
counts
tamed
frustra
say that I have undertaken
the mother
who
song,
pleased
ne
sollemnis debetur gloria.
everlasting fame, why should I,who
sleepy indolence fail to uphold my
Muse
mora.
dulci
impetus
abesto,
IO3
Orpheo,
feras
movit
tenuit
mihi
Quoniam
FABULOUS
length
be
given
me.11
to the third book
Hence
it can be deduced
that, 'In the prologue
(17-23) Phaedrus
... A
the birthplace of the Muses
records that he was born on the "Pierian Mountain",
... shows that 17-19 are to be
comparison with ibid. 55ff.
literally; he was born
interpreted
in Pieria ?
in the Roman province of Macedonia.
that is, in Thessaly
The plain sense of
20 is surely that he was born in the vicinity of a school (or a lecture-room),
which implies
a litterator. We
that his mother was the wife
(or servant?) of a schoolteacher,
probably
cannot say for sure whether his birth was legitimate'.12 Born at the very birthplace of the
Muses? Born near a school? Son of a school-teacher?
Thus legends may be born, but flesh
and blood poets?
Details vary, but in standard versions Pieria, a district at the foot of Mount Olympus,
was indeed the birthplace of the Muses,
the Pierians were a Thracian
people, Linus and
Orpheus
together
both
to
support
sons
the
the
But the Latin
Olympus.
somno
were
inerti
deseram
of Muses.
The
of
cum
gens
and
17-23
Thracian
second passage
/ Threissa
decus?
3 pr.
passages,
was
Phaedrus
is disconcerting.
patriae
two
The
conclusion:
reads strangely,
numeret
thus
51-61,
born
ancestry,
auctores
seem
near
at 55ff.: 'Cur
suos,
Linoque
Apollo sit parens, Musa Orpheo, qui...',
'Why should I abandon the glory of my ancestral
land to idle lethargy, since the Thracian
and (since)
people count their own auctores,
is the parent of Linus, the Muse of Orpheus, who ...' Auctores
is ambiguous,
both
Apollo
in the
'authors'
and metaphorical),
Linus
and
sense
of
'writers';
and
'originators',
that is, the inspiring
Orpheus,
respectively.13
However
or
gods Apollo
interpreted,
'inspirers',
even
and the Muse,
the
expression
'ancestors'
parents
of
(literal
of the singers
his
sentiments
is awkward. Rising to the challenge of Aesop and Anacharsis,
the poet appeals, not to the
famous poets of his supposed ancestral homeland
(which was not his actual patria) but to
the gods who were their parents, and then to the talents of Orpheus. The question asked
in 1. 55 does not actually finish until another four lines have passed, after a long sub
ordinate
clause and a clause within
that clause: do we break up the sentence with the
question mark at the end of 1. 55 (as above), leaving the next lines to dangle, or do we hold
our breaths for it until the end of 1. $9} And the puzzled reader might well ask: Linus and
11
in his translation
to expand
the Latin considerably
in places,
and his punctuation
differs
Perry felt obliged
slightly.
In 1. 54, propior
is Pithou's
in P: Perry accepts proprior,
emendation
for proprior
'Iwho am nearer
translating
by birth to the literary land of Greece'.
In 1. 56, Perry accepts Rittershausen's
emendation
of deos for suos, translating
that the Thracian
'considering
race counts gods among its authors'; but cf. below.
12
to the poet, 'Phaedrus the Fabulist',
at 501.
introduction
Currie, op. cit. (n. 5), in his excellent
13
race counts gods among its
of deos in 1. $6 makes
the thought explicit:
'that the Thracian
Perry's acceptance
authors,
that Apollo
[etc.]'.
EDWARD
I04
CHAMPLIN
Orpheus were fortunate to have divine parents, but how does that translate into genetic
race whose descendant
lives in Greece? Sense can be wrung
inspiration for the Thracian
from the passage, but it is clumsily expressed,
and the gods sit very uncomfortably
in it.
This awkwardness
springs, in part at least, from the poet's attempt to recall Vergil. As
race and the singers Linus and Apollo,
11. 56-7, referring to the Thracian
Thiele observed,
echo a passage in Vergil's Eclogues:
o mihi
tarn
longae
et quantum
carminibus
Spiritus
non me
nee
Linus,
Orphei
huic
maneat
sat
vincat
mater
Calliopea,
erit
pars
tua
nee
quamvis
ultima
vitae,
dicere
facta,
Thracius
atque
Orpheus,
huic
pater
Lino formosus Apollo.
55
adsit,
(Eel. 4. 53-7)14
Inspired by his great subject, Vergil's poems will not be defeated by those of Orpheus
artistic parents
and Linus, even if their divinely
should stand at their side. That
is,
to a well-known
a great poet self
Phaedrus
has called attention
in which
passage
compares himself with the legendary singers of Thrace. But where Vergil says
confidently
his divine inspiration will rival that of Linus and Orpheus,
Phaedrus tries to align himself
or not, he has
with the Thracian
bards and their divine parents, or so it seems. Maladroit
his reminiscence
in a most
of Vergil
remarkable way:
it, like its
carefully emphasized
exemplar,
appears
at
11. 55-7
of
a
63-line
poem.
Is another
of the passage possible? The poet has already compared
interpretation
now fol
could he here be continuing
himself with Aesop and Anacharsis;
the comparison,
In other
lowing (not subverting) Vergil, and comparing himself with Linus and Orpheus?
'If a Phrygian and a Scythian could found eternal fame on their natural talent, why
words:
should I, who am closer to [or, belong more to] lettered Greece, abandon my homeland;
even though Thracians
have their own authors, and Apollo
(himself) is the father of Linus,
sets himself
...' On this interpretation,
and a Muse
the mother
of Orpheus
Phaedrus
from
and
Thrace
the
Thracian
(and
against exemplars
Phrygia, Scythia,
heritage of the
not
of
but
is
noted
scholars
irrelevant
and
The
Pieria,
Phaedrus,
by
by
people
misleading).
but then the passage is highly problematic,
reading is awkward, undeniably,
perhaps even
it is to be interpreted.
If these lines are thus not good evidence
so, however
deliberately
where might the poet's patria be?
that he came from Thrace, or Macedonia,
in the Prologue to Book 3 begins as itwill go
His prickly address to his patron Eutychus
on, oddly. If Eutychus wishes to read Phaedrus' books he must (oportet) take time off from
his affairs to appreciate the power of the poetry: he must not think that he will have leisure
to peruse such trifles (1-14). No,
'You must
rather, imperiously:
during the holidays
change (mutandum est) your goal and your way of life, if you are thinking of crossing the
threshold of theMuses
limen cogitas)'
(intrare siMusarum
(15-16). 'Even I,whose mother
to
bore the nine Muses
bore me on the Pierian ridge {Pierio iugo), where Mnemosyne
I
thundering Jupiter, even though I was almost born in a school (schola), and although
have completely
banished
the love of gain from my heart and have devoted myself
to the life [sc. of the poet], nevertheless
I am received into that company
(in
(incubuerim)
coetum) only grudgingly'
(17-24). 'What do you suppose happens in the case of a man [sc.
to heap up great riches and
strives at every waking moment
like you, Eutychus] who
sweet
to
But
"whatever
the
lucre
task
of
now,
may come of it" (as Sinon
prefers
learning?
I will trace out a third book with
said when he was led before the King of Dardania),
it to you in recognition
If you read it
of your honour and worth.
Aesop's pen, dedicating
I shall be glad; but if not, at any rate, those who come after us will have something with
which to amuse themselves'
(24-32). So much for Eutychus.
14
Hermes
G. Thiele,
41 (1906), 574?5. 'O then for me may long life's latest part remain / And
'Ph?drus-Studien',
one
/ Though
spirit great enough to celebrate your deeds! / Linus will not defeat me in song, nor Thracian Orpheus,
/ Orpheus
and Linus fair Apollo'
should have his father's aid and one his mother's,
(Penguin Classics
Calliope
translation
(1984)).
by G. Lee, Virgil, The Eclogues
PHAEDRUS
THE
FABULOUS
105
The sequence of thought here is this. Phaedrus imagines Eutychus as being so busy with
rerum varietas',
'distracted by all
his duties, officia (cf. 3 ep. 3: 'distringit quern multarum
that he will only want to look at the poet's work when the holidays
kinds of matters'),
If
come, but Phaedrus points out that he should be relaxing then. Poetry is hard work.
a
enter
to
is
wants
the
of
the
of
life
threshold
radical
Muses,
change
Eutychus
really
and
essential. Phaedrus himself, even with his literary birth, his disdain for money-making,
to poetry, finds only grudging acceptance; how then will a man like Eutychus
his devotion
it seems
who
fare,
pursuing not poetry but money? Phaedrus,
spends his waking moments
if only just.
then, has crossed the threshold of the Muses,
It is peculiar,
Musarum
indeed it is unique. The
limen is a strikingly concrete metaphor.
on Pieria or Olympus
or Heli
are outdoor women,
Muses
their home is in the mountains,
con. If they do not live in a house, how can they have a threshold?
at Rome, for instance,
however, do have thresholds. The house of the Muses
Temples,
was the Aedes Herculis Musarum,
in the Campus
the Temple of Hercules
of the Muses,
Martius.
This was built by the triumphant general M. Fulvius Nobilior
(consul 189 b.c.)
to the Muses.
in Aetolia, which he dedicated
from the spoils of his campaign
Fulvius, a
patron of the arts and a scholar of religion, had brought from his successful
siege of
statues of the Nine, and one of Hercules
Leader of the Muses. These he placed
Ambracia
in his new temple, and there he had transferred from the Temple of Honos
and Virtus a
small bronze shrine dedicated to theMuses
(Camenae to the Romans),
supposedly by King
in Rome is suggested by the
Numa. That the temple complex was to be a sort of Museum
soon
of
the poet Accius
attested
the
of which
after,
presence
there,
collegium poetarum
was
a
in
member
prominent
the
later
second
or
early
first
century
b.c.
This
college
was
surely part of Fulvius' original plan, and his prot?g? Ennius may have been its first
evidence has recently been combined with literary sources to
magister. And archaeological
locate the schola poetarum,
the meeting place of the poets (Martial 3.20.8, 4.61.3), on the
in the Campus Martius.
ground: it was the exedra attached to the Temple of the Muses
Here
it was,
in the
aedes
that
Musarum,
poets
met
to recite
their
works.15
has already warned us not to take him literally. Let us suppose that he speaks
he asserts
that his mother
bore him near Olympus
when
where
metaphorically
nine times fruitful, bore to thundering Jupiter the chorus of the arts (i.e., the
Mnemosyne,
nine Muses).
Let us indeed suspect that he hints by this that he was born near the Temple
in Rome.
If so, much falls into place:
of the Muses,
Line 16 is to be taken literally: you must devote yourself full time to poetry if you wish
to cross the threshold of the Muses,
that is, enter their Temple.
Phaedrus
Lines
recipior',
20
and
gain
23,
'quamvis
real meaning.
in
Not
... fastidi?se
natus
sim schola
tarnen
in coetum
ipsa paene
...
the fatuous
I was
in a school,
almost
born
'although
it is only with distaste that I am admitted
into the society [sc. of poets]'. But, jokingly,
... it is
was
I
in
all
born
the
Schola
but
[of Poets] itself [ipsa is emphatic],
'although
only
with distaste
into their company
that I am admitted
That is, even
[or even: meeting]'.
he is barely allowed
in. So what hope
though Phaedrus was born almost in the Temple,
will there be for Eutcyhus, who devotes his life to earning money
(11.24-6)?
Incubuerim
in
1. 22
assumes
a
precise
and
concrete
significance
(however
corrupt
the
rest of the line may be): where better than in the Temple
of the Muses,
with its Schola
for a would-be
Poetarum,
poet to sleep 'in the hope of having inspired dreams'?
15
= LTUR
Urbis Romae
'Hercules Musarum,
(ed.), Lexicon
3 (1996), 17-19,
Steinby
Topographicum
// Campo Marzio.
above all, F. Coarelli,
(A. Viscog?iosi);
4 (1999), 146-8, 'Porticus Philippi'
(A. Viscogliosi);
Delle origini alla fine d?lia Repubblica
all previous
and which
is
(1997), 452-84, which
supersedes
bibliography,
here. On the collegium
see also especially N. Horsfall,
followed
'The Collegium
BICS 23
poetarum,
Poetarum',
at Alexandria).
between
this and the real Museum
The central texts for
(who points out the difference
(1976), 79-95
the temple are Pan.Lat. 9.7.3; Pliny, NH
35.66; Servius ad Aen. 1.8; and, for the college of poets, Valerius Maximus
on Horace,
Sat. 1.10.38 and Ep. 2.2.91; Juvenal 7.38.
3.7.11; Porphyrio
E. M.
Aedes'
EDWARD
io6
in 1. 18 the Romanness
And
Father
of
a
been
the Muses,
but
thunderer,
of Phaedrus'
thundering
it was
Jupiter,
at Rome
first
who
created by the emperor Augustus,
on
i
22
September
CHAMPLIN
is slyly affirmed
'Olympus'
...
'Tonanti
a
that
Iovi'.
a temple
dedicated
Jupiter,
cult
separate
of
to
by Jupiter,
had
course,
Tonans
Jupiter
to him on the Capitol,
the
always
was
in Rome,
b.c.16
to the Temple
In short, through oblique allusions
of the Muses
and the Schola and
as with his oblique allusions
to the blue-blooded
tricksters Sinon and
Jupiter Tonans,
'Phaedrus' plays with the reader. There is no reason to think that he was Greek,
Telephus,
an ex-slave of dubious Thracian
ancestry from the region of Mount Olympus.
Perhaps he
rare in the history of Latin
was something very different,
indeed something extraordinarily
letters. Was he Roman, born in the heart of Rome?
v
even
but an essential trait is indirection,
Fables teach or confirm truths about ourselves,
us
our
to
not
Rather
combine
with
admonish
faces.
do
misdirection.
they
insight
They
animals with their universally
amusement,
revealing truth indirectly through tales about
?
?
the lion, the donkey, the crow
talking and acting like humans;
recognized characters
or
anecdotes
through
men
famous
about
and
or
women;
even
stories
through
about
'two soldiers fell in with a
folk ('two men went on a journey',
anonymous
ordinary,
fables add a moral, fabula docet, to make explicit what is implicit
robber'). Traditionally
or epimythium
in antiquity,
added before or after the tale
in the story (promythium
are
as
too
couched
but
avoid
these
('he who brings aid
offence,
they
impersonally
proper),
subversive
to the wicked
suffers for it'). And however
afterwards
they might be, of our
is weak and
selves or of our society, the sting in the tale is softened when the storyteller
unthreatening,
and
old
usually
humble,
or
a slave
perhaps
an
ex-slave.
To be sure, fables were indeed retold by real
adds another layer of misdirection.
Writing
it comes to
in the nursery, by real peasants
around the hearth. But when
old women
is inevitable. We the sophisticated
readers enjoy acting
them down, role-playing
writing
author certainly has a pur
the simple folk, reverting to childhood. And the sophisticated
pose beyond our immediate edification and amusement. Ancient fables have come down to
or embedded
us anonymously
in works of different
literary genres, but above all they are
If Aesop actually existed we know nothing about him: the
attached to the name of Aesop.
is a complete fiction, as real as Uncle Remus. All of
Life of Aesop
hero of the marvellous
of Aesop's proud, self-proclaimed
which does not bode well for any precise identification
successor,
He
Phaedrus.
too
could
be
a
fiction.
complete
tale with an obvious moral, but it may well be
So a fable may be a simple, anonymous
a fictitious author could
as simplicity, attracted to a genre wherein
masked
sophistication
we
turn
to
his
Phaedrus
and
When
in
fables, we descend from
particular
metaphor.
speak
troubling
First,
The
for
into desperation,
uncertainty
A. E. Housman
is a disaster.
the text
matter
and
manner
been baffled or distracted
concentrate
uncommonly
of
Phaedrus
on his textual
scrutiny
The
minute.
consequence
their
are
by difficulties
reasons.
three
wrote
so
plain
inherent
in 1920:
and
lucid
that
in the author;
and the scrutiny
condition,
errors
which
is that most
his
correctors
have
not
they have been able to
of Mr
can
Havet
has
set
right
be
been
with
certainty have been set right already: there remains a vast deal of damage which is beyond
nor regarded the metre has bred
repair. The licence of scribes who neither understood
such disorder that the words of the MSS are often far away from anything that the poet
16
Aedes'
LTUR 3 (1996), 159-60,
(P. Gros). There are no certain remains and the exact location
'Iuppiter Tonans,
Dio 54.4.2, cf. Suetonius,
in a dream of Augustus:
on the Capitol
is disputed. The novelty of the cult is emphasized
Divus Augustus
91.
THE
PHAEDRUS
can
have
of which,
and editors
written,
for that very
reason,
FABULOUS
a
have
accordingly
large
be probable.17
will
107
choice
of possible
few
corrections,
Second, the present work is a fragmentary and much distorted version of the volume left
survive (out of order) in a
fables not in the manuscripts
by the poet. Some thirty-two
in the fifteenth century, while dozens more can be
Perotti
selection made by Niccol?
discerned
in
?
close
prose
in one
paraphrases
or more
late
and
antique
mediaeval
manu
and indeed Phaedrus himself seems to say in the Prologue to his first book (1 pr.
scripts
6) that itwill include talking trees, but no such fable survives in the extant work. A careful
assessment
of the disiecta membra
suggests that the original corpus held at least sixty
in the manuscripts.
included
the
poems beyond
ninety-five
This dislocation
of Phaedrus' work is particularly
regrettable since it obscures the poet's
of what he chose to include; at
intentions. The contents as we have them are a distortion
a
for
glance,
instance,
one
can
see
the
manuscripts'
fondness
for,
and
the
paraphrasts'
about half of the fables preserved only by
exclusive concern with, animal tales, whereas
is lost,
Perotti have no animals at all. And the form that the poet imposed on his works
though enough survives of its structure in the ruins of Book 1 to suggest considerable
artistry
in the
arrangement
of
the
poems.18
Third, there is the vexatious question of the poet's character. If we dismiss most of the
to take his words
if we try for the moment
'facts' as modern
inventions,
autobiographical
at face value, we watch him develop a striking and consistent
In Book
authorial persona.
1, he says he is putting Aesop's fables into verse to amuse and to instruct (pr.). No Epilogue
survives. The Prologue of Book 2 goes further: again, his purpose is to instruct amusingly,
but he will now add some inventions of his own to those of Aesop. The reader, lector, is
asked to take this in good part and his reward will be the poet's brevity. The Epilogue fore
sees both trouble and reward for his emulation of Aesop: envy will not deter him, and if
his happiness will remove every
his work reaches cultivated ears and its art is appreciated,
to
if
his
of
inferiors
the
theme
but
carp at him he will endure
envy)
(reverting
complaint,
his 'fatal exile' until Fortune changes her mind. In Book 3, all the themes are advanced, as
to whom he dedicates
the
appeal to the reader is replaced by appeal to the busy Eutychus,
book. In the Prologue, again, envy and the hope for eventual glory (11.60-1). Again, Aesop
is the measure,
but he is surpassed: where he made a path, Phaedrus has made a highway.
is the apparent attack by someone
New
('Sejanus') who foolishly
thought Phaedrus was
again, there is emphasis on Eutychus'
busyness and the
attacking him. In the Epilogue,
notion of Phaedrus' brevity deserving a reward from him, the reader, and again the sense
of being attacked. But then two new, interrelated themes are added: one, the idea that the
for his successors;
the other, that old age is
poet has laid down his pen to leave material
to
In
Book
the
the
the
4,
pen again, because he does not
poet picks up
looming.
Prologue
trust his successors. Again he has a patron, now Particulo, who is likewise busy but who
appreciates Phaedrus' verse more than Eutychus did; and yet again the poet speaks bitterly
of
detractors.
His
envious
critics
are
again
attacked
in 4.7
and
4.22,
and
he
comments
on
his relation to Aesop: he has composed many more fables and on new subjects. In the
And finally, in the Pro
Epilogue he yet again praises (to Particulo now) his own brevity.
?
he has paid his debt to
logue to Book 5, he again discusses his relationship with Aesop
?
his predecessor
and now mentions
him only for his auctoritas
and he dismisses biting
17
=
In his review of J. P. Postgate's
Classical
Text, Housman,
op. cit. (n. 6), (1920), 121-2
Oxford
(1972), 1007.
as his readers had come to expect: 'To handle a text of this sort is a business which calls for diffidence
and flexibility: Dr Postgate
is both sanguine and stubborn,
and if once he gets hold of the stick by the wrong end he
does not let go.'
18
Essential here are J. Henderson,
'Phaedrus' Fables: the original corpus', Mn 52 (1999), 308-29 and Holzberg,
op.
cit. (n. 2), 39-40, 95-104. The figures are Henderson's,
summed up at p. 315: 5 sets of prologues
and epilogues + 95
+ 32 in Perotti + c. 36 beast-fables
the
poems in manuscript
briefly analyses
suggested by the paraphrases.
Holzberg
structure of Book 1 at pp. 40-1.
He
continued
io8
EDWARD
CHAMPLIN
an epilogue,
envy, invidia mordax. The book as it survives ends abruptly without
though
the final poem (5.10) may serve as one, for it tells the tale of an old hunting dog mistreated
this, Philetus, you can
by his master, and concludes with the cryptic 'Why I have written
see very well'. The theme of old age is appropriate,
is a patron
is
but whether
Philetus
In short, a sharp and consistent
from his
unclear.
portrait of the poet can be distilled
into Latin and into verse,
of transferring Aesop
poems: a man proud of his achievement
for
both
amusement
and
at
instruction;
the
same
time,
a man
ever
more
of
independent
and proud of adding many new fables to the tradition; one continually
and
Aesop
of the envious, always buoyed by the hope that the
increasingly worried by the detractions
and glory for him; one who appeals to patrons with indif
future holds due recognition
ferent success; and one who in the end fears the onset of old age and death.
None of this, of course, need be true, unless we are happy to equate the poet with his
is compounded
with his character
'Phaedrus'. Our discomfort
creation, Phaedrus with
when we realize that he tells us both too much and too little about himself. On the one
he is strikingly unique: the
and a personality,
hand, as a fabulist with both a biography
and the grammarian Aphthonius,
the poets Babrius and Avianus
other known fabulists,
are bland to the point of non-existence
within
the Aesop
of the Aesop
their works;
Romance
is a creation later than, and quite separate from, the collections
of fables which
bear
his
name;
the
and
other
are
prose-writers
anonymous
or
That
pseudonymous.
is,
into his own collection,
and defending his
Phaedrus should not be elbowing
proclaiming
in the fables themselves.
virtues in elaborate prologues
and epilogues,
and on occasion
This break with tradition needs attention.
auto
is hard to grasp. The overtly
On the other hand, clear biographical
detail
are
are
far
from
and
and
lucid':
ambiguous,
they
generally vague
pieces
biographical
'plain
few hard facts to be won from them. For instance, however we
and there are precious
at
to Book 3, at 11. 52-9 (considered
interpret the poet's claim to fame in the Prologue
his
lines
the
about
Latin
is
while
and
the
tortured
obscure,
thirty-five
length above),
as to defy compre
to 3 are so veiled in their expression
private affairs in the Epilogue
the
is in command
of his medium:
that Phaedrus
hension.19 No one would
disagree
of the autobiographical
coy
then, to disguise
passages may be deliberate
obscurity
to Greek
of Rome.
the fables
references
tricksters and the topography
By contrast,
themselves are indeed generally plain and lucid, but it is hard not to look for their personal
to the poet when he himself invites scrutiny. The Old Woman
and the Wine
significance
are
me
to'
this
refers
will
tell
what
who
knows
you
(3.1.6). Who
'Anyone
Jar concludes,
Hunter:
in
time'
The
and
the
Old
will
the poet's detractors?
ep.
appear
(3
32).
Dog
'They
'Why
I have
written
this,
Philetus,
you
can
see
very
well'
(5.10.10).
Hidden
meanings
lurk anywhere. Modern
rely on them.
biographies
down
the rabbit-hole. His genre is by its nature oblique
Phaedrus disappears
elusive, his text a quicksand, his true life obscured by an elaborate mask. Nevertheless,
can
say
something
about
his
may
and
we
taste.
19
of old age and death supposedly
seem to address Eutychus
again, though he is not named. The prospect
They
to finish something
looms over the poet, and he urges his addressee
(rent) for the poet and to give him what he has
where before they were others',
is innocent of something.
The partes are now his addressee's,
Phaedrus
promised.
of time they will belong to yet others
and in the whirligig
('Tuae sunt partes; fuerunt aliorum prius, / dein simili gyro
to the opposing
be
venient
aliorum vices'). This could, by a stretch, be applied
pleas in a lawsuit, but it would
he is,
could be a judge. Whoever
is Eutychus,
it is hard to see how a Greek freedman(?)
if the addressee
awkward;
some decision
the legalistic tinge
in accordance
with religio and fides. Despite
is to make
the addressee
(iudicium)
no lawsuit is at issue, rather
his work and often metaphorical,
to the poet's language, which
is pervasive
throughout
thus: 'it
of his complaint
a promise whose
for the length or vehemence
is overdue.
Phaedrus
fulfillment
apologizes
down by the
is hard for a man to contain himself when he is aware of his own untainted
integrity, and is weighed
are they, you ask. They will be seen in time.' Not Sejanus, then, and not a public
insolent actions of guilty men. Who
lawsuit. What
is going
on,
I have
no
idea.
THE
PHAEDRUS
FABULOUS
IO9
VI
His
culture
his
with
is exclusively
low
Roman.
is surely
status,
boy he had studied his Ennius
work,
she will
of his patron
Uep.
have
more
Particulo
The
a bow
[authors]
'is bound
to
set
to
the Aesopean
'if Latium
(3 ep. 32). Now,
against
is a name
trait in Phaedrus
only Greek
as
assumed
those
to live in my writings
tradition.
shall look with
of Greece'
But
even
as
a
favour upon my
And
(2.9.8-9).
as long as Latin
that, along
the
name
letters are valued'
5-6).
Four Latin writers
influences. Vergil and Ennius he not only
stand out as particular
=
?
Aeneid
2.77 and ep. 34
340 W) but cleverly imitates. As
quotes (at 3 pr. 27
Telephus
we have seen, Vergil's
at Eclogues
Linus
with
and
3.53-7 he
self-comparison
Orpheus
to himself at the same position
in a poem of the same length (3 pr.), while at
appropriates
to show a sup
4.7 he offers a splendid eleven-line parody of the opening of Ennius' Medea,
can
verse
as
at
critic
write
serious
that
he
well.
the
poet questions
Similarly,
App. 8,
posed
Apollo at Delphi and receives a mantic answer from the Pythia in terms clearly imitating
to Apollo's
the questions put by Vergil's Aeneas
oracle at Delos
(Aen. 3) and to Apollo's
at
Cumae
catches
the
What
eye is that each of the five
(Aen. 6).20
immediately
Sybil
imitations occurs not in fables proper but in autobiography,
the author
quietly associating
with two great Latin poets who have little to do with fables. These aside, the echoes are
faint.21 The same can be said of Ovid, who seems to turn up twice in Phaedrus.22
But
Horace
is another
matter
altogether,
for
Phaedrus
refers
to,
imitates,
plays
with,
is not a novel observation,
and thinks deeply about him.23 That Phaedrus knew his Horace
are taken from
but the nature of his fondness deserves attention. Most of his reminiscences
on
Horace
is
his
where
but
since
all
of
his
passages
craft,
then,
poetry might be
reflecting
to the point is that, just as
read as reflection on his craft, that is not too helpful. More
Phaedrus aligns himself with Vergil in comparing himself with earlier poets, so he wants
us to think of him and Horace
together. The volume of the echo resonates in the reader's
a story alluded to by Horace,
treatment
here
the
there the playful recasting of
full
of
mind,
a story told by Horace,
if oblique, hints of the association
and along the way precise,
?
between the two poets
the viper of envy biting the literary file, the exemplars Aesop and
Lucilius naris emunctae,
inferior poets in borrowed
feathers or labouring to produce a
mouse.
20
... mugir?
Aen. 3.90-2,
'tremer? omnia_laurusque
dei... moveri mons
'ex adyto
adytis' (Delos) and 6.98-102,
... frena furenti concutit
... cessit furor' (Cumae). Cf. Phaedrus,
dictis ... antroque
remugit
App. 8, 'sacratae vatis
/ tremuntque
horrescunt
lauri et ipse pallescit dies' (Delphi).
comae, / tripodes moventur,
mugit adytis Religio,
21
ranae sustulere ad sid?ra'; cf.
in Phaedrus'
of Vergil
first book. At 1.6.4, 'clamorem
Frogs evoke sly memories
are heartened
Aen. 10.262-3,
'clamorem ad sidera tollunt / Dardanidae'.
Vergil's Trojans
by Aeneas'
blazing shield
(262), the flame at his helmet's crest, his golden shield boss spouting fire, etc. (270-5); Phaedrus'
frogs protest against
the Sun's marriage
two bulls
and potential
since already he burns up their ponds. At Phaedrus
children,
1.30.5-6,
loser will trample them in their marsh; at
fight over the leadership of the herd, and the frogs fear that the expelled
two bulls fight over a heifer and the loser is expelled
from the herd, training for his revenge in the
3.210-41,
Georg.
In Vergil
wilderness.
the loser looks back at the stable as 'regnis excessit
avitis'
he is 'expulso
(229); in Phaedrus
at Vergil 215). Frogs are traditionally
the underclass,
the masses
regno nemoris'
(7: cf. also nemorum
(cf. Phaedrus
1.2 and 1.24: curiously
frogs appear only in the first of his five books as they survive): playing off Vergil in these two
see below.
eye view of the heroic. For an echo of the Eclogues,
gives the worm's
144, 'nulla sancta societas nee fides regni est'; Phaedrus
1.5.1, 'numquam est fidelis cum potente
is a clear verbal reminiscence
societas'. There
of Ennius here, but the situation
in Phaedrus
of the societas
leonina
to do with the sharing of kingship
in Ennius'
has nothing
}Thyestes.
22
'nemo libenter recolit qui
1.1.86,
Ovid, Tristia
'ilium, quo laesa est, horret adire locum'; cf. Phaedrus
1.18.1,
in common: Ovid
laesit locum'. The two texts have nothing
of his little skiff avoiding
the
speaks metaphorically
storms of Augustus;
to the fable about a woman
Phaedrus'
line is the promythium
in childbirth
refusing to go to
bed. Ovid, Remed. 60, 'Nee dolor armasset contra sua viscera matrem,
/ quae socii damno sanguinis ulta virum est',
is more promising,
inverts its intent at 1.28.10,
since Phaedrus
'hosti dolorem
damno miscens
sanguinis'. Where
Ovid speaks of Medea
hers against the eagle.
harming her children, Phaedrus has the fox protecting
23
are gathered and discussed
1.
Reminiscences
of Horace
in Appendix
below,
Phaedrus
passages,
Ennius Vahlen
no
CHAMPLIN
EDWARD
Horace
is,
as
overwhelmingly,
no
ancient
reader
could
to
fail
be
Horace
aware,
the
was
It is well
Phaedrus
known
that Horace
quite
ignores the lyric poet.
fond of retelling or alluding to fables in his satirical works,
in a tradition that
exceptionally
we can glimpse
in the fragments of his predecessors,
Lucilius and Ennius. The common
of
satire
the
of
human
and
theirs a natural partner
fable,
exposure
ground
folly, makes
sooner
or
to
in
write
Latin
and
fables
would
later cross paths with
anyone
looking
ship,
satirist:
Horace.
But
there
is more
to Phaedrus
than
that.
association
The
Horace
with
the
satirist
suggests that he wants himself to be taken seriously as a satirist.
the satirical is,
lifts him out of the fabulist tradition and sets him squarely within
What
noticed earlier: his authorial persona
is that of the satirist
first, the excess of personality
is integral to ancient satire, filtering the follies of mankind
which
through his own anger
or
amusement.
Hence
the
overtly
in
musings
autobiographical
the
eight
pro
surviving
fables and part of a fourth,
(two others are lost) and in three whole
logues and epilogues
some 224 lines in all. Hence
intrusion of himself and his opinions
into
also the explicit
another six fables, to say nothing of the dark hints throughout. Hence perhaps the appear
ance of alter egos, above all Aesop himself, whom the poet repeatedly acknowledges
as his
model.
in some
appears
Aesop
nine
as
fables
or
storyteller
or
observer
active
too
and in spirit in two more as his alter ego, Socrates, while Simonides
on stage to illustrate the value of poetry and the poet to men and gods.24
Both fable and satire aim to reprove and to instruct, but the fable
This sense of
timelessly applicable, where satire is fiercely contemporary.
is
into his
satire
the
insertion
of
the
author
of
connectedness,
conveyed by
in a tradition,
professedly
envious
against
struggling
detractors,
participant,
is twice brought
to be
professes
the concrete, the
fables, working
to more
appealing
or
less
and it is supported by a second characteristic
favourable
of Phaedrus' work,
patrons,
to satire. Fables, like most of Phaedrus'
in
fable
but
essential
surviving poems, are
unique
with few details. Even in anecdotes about historical figures
timeless, brief, impressionistic,
But some of Phaedrus'
stand for, say, the king and the philosopher.
the names merely
?
number among the lost fables, removed from
fables
and probably a disproportionate
the
beast-dominated
?
tradition
are
rooted
firmly
sometimes
in,
out
grow
comment
of,
at
length on, real life, daily life in first-century Rome. On a hot summer's day the
court considers
emperor strolls in the garden of his country villa; at Rome the centumviral
scurra known for his
an inheritance case which
is entangled with murder; a professional
unusual
wit
urbane
excites
the
city
by
a
promising
never
show
before
seen
in
the
theatre;
a well
known flute-player, who has accompanied
Bathyllus himself ?on stage and has been injured
a fool of himself
returns
makes
when the chorus launches
and
the
stage machinery,
by
into
of
praise
thinks
problems
the
emperor,
that his fautores
of
an
army
on
the
crowd
campaign,
with
responds
are applauding
as part
him
of
a
standing
(a pun
his
baggage
train
and
ovation,
is involved);
the musician
a general
is stolen
and
faces
the
a barbarian
challenges his men to single combat; a soldier is assigned to guard the crucified remains of
a shepherd,
to be
some temple thieves; most
is condemned
falsely accused,
famously,
thrown to the beasts at the next games, ludis proximis.25 This realism, grafted onto the
to do with satire.
fable, has nothing to do with the fabulist tradition and everything
to Horace
the resort
the satirist, the intrusion of the authorial persona,
The allegiance
to realism: together they point in one direction.
and his predecessors
Seizing with Horace
their common functions, Phaedrus tried to go further, blending the forms of popular fable
the appeal to aures cultas, the emphasis on doctus labor. The
and literary satire, whence
failed and left no heirs. But one point should be stressed. Satura tota nostra est.
marriage
24
and epilogues,
3.1.7, 3.9.3-5,
plus 4.7, 4.22 and App. 2 entire, plus 4.2.1-9. Opinions:
Autobiography:
prologues
at 1.6, 2.3, 3.3, 3.14, 4.5, App. 9, 12, 13, 17; Socrates at 3.9, App. 27;
5.10.10, App. 8.1. Aesop
5.4.7-9,
3.10.59?60,
at 4.23, 4.26.
Simonides
25
and the
2.5, 3.10, 5.5, 5.7, App. 10, 15, Zander 9 (= Ad. 35). The last is better known as the story of Androclus
lion in Aulus Gellius
(5.14).
THE
PHAEDRUS
III
FABULOUS
a 'Greek freedman'
all the many
literature,
genres of Latin
their unique contribution.
the one most identified with the Romans,
That
is, of
appropriated
brazenly
VII
As many have noticed, the fables of Phaedrus are deeply coloured by a passion for another
interest in trial scenes, he
purely Roman art, the civil law. The poet has an extraordinary
in legalistic terms, he sprinkles his poems with juristic
frames issues of right and wrong
the most
his
?
times
a talent
shows
supposed
conservative
A poet who
legal vocabulary.
three
of
on
Even
jargon.26
with
to be
an
after
patrons
the
estimate,
can work
fables
iusiurandum
if not
admired,
extraordinarily
of
are
Phaedrus
?
into his verse
imitated.
A writer
obscure
term
who
for
permeated
not once but
name
can
one
Particulo,
'coheir',
of and interest
shows a quirky sense of humour.27 But beyond the simple fact of knowledge
in the law, what does this signify?
are given
is so common
in the poems that even tired metaphors
First, legal vocabulary
renewed colour. Witnessing
something,
judging well or ill, paying the penalty, gaining
redress for an injury, and so on: in some tales they deal literally with bearing witness,
legal
the delict of iniuria, while in others they are the
judgement, the infliction of punishment,
simple clich?s of daily life. The point is that in context and through juxtaposition with
for
other clich?d legal metaphors,
they give new life to standard modes of expression,
at
example
i.i,
3.
ep.
22,
or
4.4,
4.26.
The
conflicts
of
the
fabulous
are
world
viewed
through a legal lens.
in the trial scenes: what strikes the reader about these
This is particularly
noticeable
cases is not just how foreign the legal context is, but how superfluous. The dispute between
the wolf and the fox (1.10) does not need a court to decide it, and the decision of the judge
to support the dog
is not a legal one. In the case of the wolf providing
false testimony
comes
moral
of
the
when
the
the
the
story
against
only
sheep (1.17),
sheep later sees the
wolf lying in a ditch: these are the wages of fraud, she thinks, given by the gods. The bees
of honeycombs
and its Solo
and the drones could have their dispute about ownership
monic
resolution
without
recourse
to a Roman
law
court
(3.13),
and
the
narrator
says
and
not an outcome
to be
repeats that the drones refused to abide by the judge's decision,
In the case of the corrupt hawk adjudicating
between
the two cocks
expected at Rome.
is a not fully clear reconstruction
from a prose paraphrase,
(Zander 2), which admittedly
again
the
court
circumstances.
scene
is quite
As for the brief
unnecessary,
as
the
tale of the eunuch
hawk
could
turn
on
and the rogue who
his
protege
abuses
him
in any
(3.13),
26
are collected
in Appendix
here.
2, below, q.v., for details of the passages mentioned
Examples
27
some wishful
in Book 3 has attracted
Phaedrus'
of that
identifications
with contemporaries
patron Eutychus
so common
to be done with something
in 3 pr., or
and generic as 'Lucky' Eutychus
name, but there is not much
in 5.10 (if he is a patron at all): on identifications
of Eutychus, Henderson,
'Beloved' Philetus
op. cit. (n. 8), 66-71;
Grimai,
op. cit. (n. 7).
in 4 pr. and 4. ep. has been ignored, although
Particulo
he is much more
interesting. He actually enjoys fables
fourth book when he is at leisure. The poet can ignore his detractors
because now
(4. pr. 10) and will read Phaedrus'
his fame has been created, since 'you, Particulo,
and others like you, transcribe my words
into your books and judge
it (what?) worthy of long memory':
'mihi parta laus est quod tu, quod similes tui / vestras in chartas verba transfertis
is nicely balanced
in the Epilogue,
where
mea, / dignumque
(4 pr. 17-19). This sentiment
longa iudicatis memoria'
the poet assures Particulo,
here vir sanctissime,
that his name will live on in Phaedrus'
books as long as Latin letters
are valued:
'chartis nomen victurum meis, / Latinis dum manebit
is
litteris' (4 ep. 5-6). The arrangement
pretium
thus reciprocal: Phaedrus will live on for a long time in Particulo's
chartae, Particulo will live on for a long time in
Phaedrus'
is not a name. It is an extremely
rare word,
does it mean?
'Particulo'
chartae. What
found only once in
Latin literature, in a mangled
line from a now lost Atellana
his Praeco Posterior. Nonius,
who
fabula by Pomponius,
the line, glosses:
'Coheirs are called particulones,
because
preserves
they take shares of a patrimony',
'particulones
dicti sunt coheredes,
sumant'. This
in the light of
is interesting
quod partes patrimonii
sharing of a patrimony
Phaedrus
and Particulo
of Phaedrus'
sharing in each other's chartae; as a legal term; and as an illustration
reading
matter. There
a clue here to his identity, if we could but decipher
is probably
it.
112
CHAMPLIN
EDWARD
scene
court
the
again
to
is unnecessary
the
moral
of
deserved
and
undeserved
failings:
seems to be to drag in the ponderous
indeed its sole justification
pun about integritatis
testes. Similarly with the dogs' embassy to Jupiter (4.19), the trial format (suit for iniuria,
is completely
And the story of the widow's
inheritance
unnecessary.
judgement, penalty)
and trial (3.10) is notably broken-backed,
the grafting of a trial scene onto a fairytale (or
rhetorical exercise) which has little to do with it. The two halves are not integrated, and
stated at great length, about not believing what you hear or being taken in by
the moral,
to do with
the trial. Again,
the courtroom
could easily be
has nothing
appearances,
after the tragedy. In sum, the
deleted,
leaving the freedman villain? simply to be unmasked
like them appears in the ancient
of course nothing
trial scenes are unique to Phaedrus
fable
?
tradition
and
they
are
author of Phaedrus' fables.
in modern
is missing
What
a
has
lawyer's
Take
on
sense
the hoary
ter
testis,
stes,
The
unnecessary.
quite
accounts
means
courtroom
is his wit, which
of Phaedrus
to
the
because
he
something
is a pity,
humour.
of
legal pun, going back to Plautus
third
the
party
stands
who
(Miles 1411-27)
around
and
and probably
beyond,
the witness,
watches,
and
by
extension
the testicle: as Cicero said of testis, itwas 'a perfectly respectable word in a court
of law, but not too respectable
anywhere else'.28 Phaedrus blends law court and real life,
on the theme in a seven-line
'fable' that has no other purpose
playing stylish variations
to
witnesses
the
his
The
eunuch develops
pun:
integrity are lacking, just as his
(3.13).
are lacking for his bodily wholeness.
casts in his face
His opponent
testicles (or witnesses)
as referring to the
the damage of his physical
loss, but the eunuch interprets his words
iniuria datum: his loss was caused by the delict of Fortune. The punch
delict of damnum
is rather flat, but the
it
is
for a man to suffer what he has deserved,
shameful
that
line,
only
testes
Fortunae:
in
and
delictum
the
lies
of
story
they are lawyer's jokes.
integritatis
point
Take also the bald man and the fly (5.3). The ten lines of the fable proper explore the
that could come straight from the Digest. The fly bites a
question of intent in a manner
man's head, and in trying to crush it the man gives himself a hard slap. The fly jeers at him
creature with death. 'What will you
to punish the sting of a tiny little winged
for wanting
it asks, 'since you've added insult to injury?' Calvus replies, 'Iwill forgive
do to yourself,'
myself easily because I know that there was no intent to cause harm; but to be free of you
I would
choose
even
greater
discomfort.'
Hence,
the moral
of
the
story
in
repeated
the
if a man commits an offence by accident, he deserves pardon, but
three-line epimythium:
is permissible.
between offence
The relationship
if he does it on purpose, any punishment
is vividly emphasized
three times: death seems an excessive penalty for
and punishment
not so, and the punisher would
such a small offender
(that is, such a small offence);
see
more
even
to
that
offender
the
himself
suffer
got his just deserts; for whoever
willingly
Intent to do harm is everything,
deserves the greatest punishment.
does harm intentionally
it. Intent was, of course,
and the mens
laedendi is a nice lawyerly way of expressing
essential to the Roman delict of iniuria: no intent, no injury in law. But the exact nature
of the intentional
injury is summed up here in the fly's charge that Calvus has added insult
to
'iniuriae
injury,
...
addideris
contumeliam':
apparently
Phaedrus
invented
the
pro
as defined by
the concerns of jurisconsults,
verbial phrasing.29 This concisely encapsulates
as
not
so
and
it
lawfulness
lacks
is
because
called
justice,
being rightful; but
'injury
Ulpian:
ex
eo
iure et iustitia
or
'iniuriam
from
derives
dictam,
quod
deriding',
despising
contumely
caret,
is how
quasi
non
Phaedrus
iuriam,
chose
contumeliam
to illustrate
autem
his
a contemnendo'.30
juristic distinction
But
between
the
fascinating
common
aspect
injury and
28
Farn. 9.22.4, cited by J. N. Adams, The Latin Sexual Vocabulary
(1982), 67.
Cicero,
29
Inv. 1.105, Verr. 2.3.105.
is of course found elsewhere:
of iniuria and contumelia
The juxtaposition
e.g., Cicero,
30
und sprichw?rtliche
addere does not appear in A. Otto, Die Sprichw?rter
Dig. 47.10.1. pr. Iniuriae contumeliam
und sprichw?rtliche
zu A. Otto,
der R?mer
Redensarten
Sprichw?rter
Nachtr?ge
(1890) or R. Haussier,
der R?mer
Redensarten
(1968).
THE
PHAEDRUS
FABULOUS
113
less than whim
injury with insult, and his insistence on the mens laedendi. It is nothing
a
to the tale, but
man
not
a
is
a
essential
and
bald
sical,
fly (baldness
silly story involving
man
a
a
a
and ready
himself
becomes
bald
the
blow
for
slap),
hitting
laugh:
always good
with the fly's serious
to do it again. And there is the added piquancy
of impossibility,
serious defence against the charge of injuring himself, and his
and the man's
accusation
himself inMonty
is
of Graham Chapman wrestling
One
reminded
Python.
self-acquittal.
Some Roman
lawyers might even find it hilarious.
anecdote about the lyric poet Simonides
Not funny but wittily recast is the well-known
standard version, the poet sang a song in praise of his host, a rich
of Ceos. In Cicero's
in Thessaly.
It included a long digres
nobleman named Scopas, at a banquet at Crannon
sion on Castor and Pollux, so that when he had finished, Scopas paid him only half of the
since they had received half
agreed fee, advising the poet to get the rest from the Dioscuri,
the
Soon
praise.
after,
Simonides
received
an
message
urgent
that
two
men
young
were
asking for him to come outside at once. When he stepped out there was no one there, but
at that moment
the building collapsed and Scopas and his relatives were killed. The point
of the story for Cicero is that only Simonides could identify the crushed remains from his
memory of where people were sitting, and this revealed to him the importance of order to
the Dioscuri were repaying their debt, as in Phaedrus and
but, more generally,
memory;
others.31 Phaedrus makes important revisions
(4.26). He prefers to let the story signify how
?
?
and
and by extension men of letters, like himself
highly the gods honour literature
follow him) to add fitting mythological
he seems to be the first author (Quintilian would
point
allusion
to
the
to
anecdote
the Dioscuri,
by making
one
of
the
them
poet's
a
patron
a victorious
boxer,
prize-winning
boxer,
'auctoritatem
hence
the
similis
poet's
referens
gloriae'. But he also adds a precise legal spin to the tale, for this is a standard contract of
locatio condue?o
operis in which, unlike the other two contracts of hire, the locator (here
is paid. A contract of hire takes effect
the boxer) pays and the conductor
(here Simonides)
'certo conductus
is fixed (Inst. 3.24 pr.): here Simonides,
when
the price, the merces,
(nothing to do with the banquet).
'Opus adprobavit'
pretio', retires to write in private
suggests the addition of a clause 'ut arbitratu domini opus adprobetur'
(cf. Dig. 19.2.24
the athlete pays only one third of the agreed
pr., et al.). But despite giving this approval,
merces: let those who received two thirds of the praise pay the poet the rest (this threefold
is more common-sensical
division
than half-and-half:
three patrons should naturally bear
the costs equally). The point of the story is that Castor and Pollux did step in to pay the
loco. The contract
poet, giving him his life as the merces for his labours, vitam mercedis
was
now
complete.
are cats
litter-bearers
Equally witty but savage is the six-line tale of the cock whose
(App. 18). Be careful of a trick, a fox warns the proud bird: just look at their faces, for they
seem to be carrying booty rather than a burden. And indeed, 'When the wild team began
to feel hungry they tore their master
to pieces and divided up the crime.'32 But of course
as a partnership,
this is presented
it divides up the
societas, albeit a wild one, and when
profits, fecit partes, it does so with grisly literalness: another lawyer's joke.
And
then
there
is the
one
about
the
lion's
share
(1.5).
A
cow,
a
she-goat,
and
a
sheep
are
the stag
partners with a lion in the jungle. Together
they bring down a huge stag. When
to claim them all.
has been divided into four portions,
partibus factis, the lion proceeds
The moral of the story (1.5.1-2) is that it is never a safe bet to share with the powerful,
and
it goes back to an anti-democratic
before an assembly,
the
story alluded to by Aristotle:
hares demand equal shares for all, but the lions point out that they have the teeth and the
claws. This political kernel Phaedrus has cleverly reworked within a legal framework. The
31
1.8 ext. 7 considers
the tale an example of the favour
Cicero, De Orat. 2.351-4. Valerius Maximus
11.2.11-16
and Quintilian
considers
that they were repaying their debt to the poet.
32
in 1. 7, and facinoris
the mss.
the emendation
with
the mss.
against
Reading
fera with
felum
emendation
funeris in 1. 8.
of the gods,
against
the
EDWARD
114
same gruesome
But
conceit
is something
there
operates
amiss
here.
CHAMPLIN
as in App.
'
Aristo
18, wild
us
tells
socii
that
up their profits.
literally dividing
Cassius
gave
the
response:
following
no partnership may be contracted
in which profit goes exclusively
to one partner and loss
to the other. He used to call this partnership
leonine.'33 Ulpian reports this approvingly
in
his commentary
Ad Sabinum
is
that a partnership
just after discussing Cassius' opinion
valid wherein one partner may suffer no part of any loss, so long as profit is shared. That
is to
the
however
say,
losses
be
may
the
among
apportioned
the
partners,
essence
of
the
?
contract of partnership
is that the profits must be shared. Hence
the leonine partnership
?
was no partnership
at all. Thus,
Cassius knew his Phaedrus
in his fable, Phaedrus has
the impossibility
of sharing (political or economic) power between strong and
emphasized
weak through casting it as a (legally) impossible partnership.
And he has done so with a
humour bordering on the surreal: three of the four partners are domesticated
animals, mild
and weak
(the sheep is patiens iniuriae, 'patient when wronged'),
female, and of course
?
herbivores
the lion is not.34 The image of these three stalking their prey in
everything
the forest or jungle, saltibus, then hurling themselves,
cepissent, on the huge stag, hooves
not
is
do
have
claws,
again
flying,
they
Pythonesque:
they cannot run as fast as the stag,
they could not eat him even if they did catch him. They bring nothing to the partnership
and they cannot possibly profit by it. The impossibility
of the leonine partnership
is vividly
it is lawyer's
again
exaggerated:
it is extremely
and
humour,
clever.
is the tale of the mysterious
The gem of the collection
will
lines,
(4?5).35 In forty-five
framed by a two-line promythium
and an echoing two-line epimythium,
it cleverly mingles
folkloric elements, an intriguing riddle, sharply realistic rendition of Roman
testamentary
and
practices,
truisms
about
human
nature
?
all
in
the
service
of
one
of
Phaedrus'
bedrock beliefs, that one man is wiser than a crowd. The telling is a marvel of elegance in
three acts. A man leaves three very different daughters,
each a female caricature described
a
one
men
in
line:
is
hunts
beautiful
and
with her eyes; one is a country
brilliantly
single
of female virtue, lanifica and frugi; the third is disgracefully
devoted
girl, the embodiment
to wine. The old man makes their mother his heir with a mysterious
that she
condition,
divide his fortune equally among the three in such a manner that they neither possess nor
enjoy what they are given, and when they cease to own what they have received each is to
give
her
law,
to no
mother
avail:
sesterces.
100,000
how
could
one
Rumours
not
possess
fly,
or
the mother
enjoy
what
consults
is given
men
to one,
learned
and
how
in
the
could
one pay when one takes nothing? After long delay and getting no sense out of the will, the
mother abandons the law and relies on good faith to divide the property. Back to the three
sets aside as
in detail the items which
the mother
again, as the poet describes
daughters
to
for
When
is
she
about
hand
each
of
them.
with
over,
appropriate
things
popular
approval, Aesop suddenly intervenes to reproach the men of Athens and to point out their
error to them. Back to the three daughters
for the third time. Aesop
suggests the correct
the
the
and
the
solution,
among
property
poet
daughters,
redistributing
neatly varies his
to describe the same objects. The epigrammatic
vocabulary
point is that the mother did
?
to her
what most people would do
she assigned each daughter the property appropriate
?
to realize that each should be given what was not
character
but it took an Aesop
to her, hence she would
sell it to buy what she really wanted,
and out of the
appropriate
33
societatem
'Aristo refert Cassium
talem coiri non posse, ut
Dig. 17.2.29.2
respondisse
(Ulpian 30 ad Sabinum):
et nos consentimus
...'
leoninam
solitum appellare:
alter lucrum tantum, alter damnum
sentiret, et hanc societatem
Aristotle:
Gibbs, op. cit. (n. 2), 14.
34
18 (1972), 72-7. His suggestion
is not valid
'La societ? col leone', Labeo
that the partnership
cf. A. Guarino,
?
one could easily
is not necessary within
since it is a maleficii
societas
the moral world of the fable
(Dig. 17.2.57)
as its purpose. The partnership
of the cats to kill and eat their master,
with hunting
imagine a human partnership
on the other hand, does look (and is apparently
but then as the fabulist
called) criminal;
implies, that is in their
nature, for it is a fera societas.
35
For a very different
take on the poem: Henderson,
op. cit. (n. 8).
PHAEDRUS
would
proceeds
ends
abruptly
FABULOUS
no more
solution:
Aesop's
HS
the sum stipulated
to pay to her mother
be obliged
with
THE
need
be
in the will.
The
story
said.
is both
levels. The vocabulary
The juristic nature of the fable is striking at different
to the senarii. Moreover,
the following
and well adapted
could well be the
plausible
'Matrem fecit heredem
succinct introduction
of a case in the prosaic pages of the Digest:
ut totam fortunam tribus filiis aequaliter distribu?t,
senex sub condicione,
sed tali modo:
ni
data
aut
possideant
turn:
fruantur;
simul
res
quas
sestertia matri conf?rant'
(cf. 4.7-12). Similarly with
of endless pages
estate, so much of it reminiscent
mundum
'vestem,
villam,
boves,
centena
desierint,
eunuchos
argenteam,
p?cora,
glabros,
agellos,
intrumentum
rusticum,
plenam
antiquis
apothecam
lavationem
muliebrem,
operarios,
habere
acceperint
the description
of the contents of the
in the jurists:
of minute
discussion
iumenta,
the three acts of the case
cadis, domum politam, delicatos hortulos.' More
importantly,
an incorrect solution
the facts are presented
reflect juristic discussion:
is pre
concisely;
the correct solution is presented and self-evident. Best of all, the tale
sented and dismissed;
is a parable for the triumph of jurisprudence. One of the most difficult and ?
to judge by
to it in the Digest ?
the space allocated
faced by lawyers was
time-consuming
problems
to determine
the intentions of a testator who was no longer there to guide them. Here is a
most puzzling
institution of an heir. The iuris periti a.re stumped and the mother, wearied
at
last
consults her heart rather than her head, iure neglecto: the law/justice/what
by delay,
is right is ignored. Aesop springs to the defence of the testator and testation, despite the
error omnium: how upset the dead man would be if he knew that the men of Athens could
not interpret his will. A testament
is defended
and interpreted properly. Aesop the wise
man
as
iuris
peritus.
In short, Aesop's
shows
heir, Phaedrus,
Roman
law. In all of classical literature, there
come to mind:
modern philosopher
'When I
like a duck and quacks like a duck, I call that
an astonishingly
interest in
sophisticated
is no one remotely like him. The words of a
see a bird that walks
like a duck and swims
bird a duck.' Phaedrus was a lawyer.
VIII
he may have been, 'Phaedrus' was not a Greek freedman
struggling against
to ennoble his humble artistic craft, he did not suffer for his art under
detractors
let us say
Sejanus, and indeed he published nothing before the reign of Claudius. Rather,
Whoever
envious
that
he was
a Roman
or
gentleman
aristocrat,
a native
of
the
and
itself,
city
an
author
who
a minor Greek genre, subjecting it to Latin metre,
flaunted his Romanitas
by appropriating
and shaping it with the two most Roman of high cultural inventions,
satire and the ius
civile. And he did so in a Latin that is remarkably pure, colloquial,
inventive, and concise:
'Phaedri
hominum
dictio
etsi
elegantiorum
propinqua
?
et
tarnen
est
cognata
pressior
est
et
sermoni
limatior
?
dico
sermone
sermonem
urbanum
cottidiano.'36His
view
of society is distinctly apposite. Unlike Babrius, he is appalled by the inequity of life which
he sees everywhere,
of the weak by the strong. But unlike the subversive
by the oppression
to the people a doctrine of resignation
he preaches
and
Aesop of the Aesop Romance,
not
of
the
of
acceptance,
boat,
rocking
hoping to be ignored by the mighty or avenged by
the
gods.37
to life, two further and related beliefs of fund
these defining attitudes
Along with
amental interest are conveyed
in the fables. First, despite nods to the majesty of the divina
domus
of Augustus
and Tiberius,
Phaedrus despises
(5.7.38), and to the perspicacity
36
C. Zander,
Phaedrus
solutus vel Phaedri fabulae novae XXX
37
two broad points are well and briefly made at
These
Holzberg,
and verse are cited below,
in Appendix
3.
(1921), 1.
op. cit. (n. 2), 48-50,
with
bibliography.
Chapter
EDWARD
ii6
CHAMPLIN
in emphatically
and he expresses his contempt
terms. The kite per
Roman
monarchy,
suades his enemies the doves, who can usually evade him in flight, that he will keep them
to him, and once he has the kingship
safe if they make him king; they entrust themselves
he exercises his imperium with savage claws (1.31). Two men come to the land of the apes.
The simius tyrannus has his companions
stand around him as he once saw the emperor's
companions
attend
the
emperor.
He
asks
one
man
who
me? ?
am
?
I
'You
are
the
?
Imperator"
and who are those you see standing before
the liar
'They are your comit?s"\ When
is rewarded with gifts, his companion
thinks he will receive even more for the truth. The
seem to be, and he replies,
princeps of the apes asks him who do he and his companions
are
are
an
He
and
these
like
is
all
ape,
apes
you'.
'Truly you
ripped to shreds for speaking
at Zander
the truth (4.13, reconstructed
the
When
lion
becomes
17).
king of the beasts he
tries to win a reputation for fairness, even moderating
his diet and rendering uncorrupted
justice. But his true nature emerges, and he learns to trick his subjects by asking them
whether his breath smells and killing them whether
they tell the truth or not (presumably
there can be no right answer: either his subjects lie or they insult him). The ape praises his
that the lion is shamed into not harming him, but he devises
breath with such extravagance
an even worse
eats
at Zander
his flatterer (4.14, reconstructed
and
trap,
25). Yet bad
successor
his
the
be
witness
could
the
worse,
may
be,
present king
though
frogs with the
when
tells the Athenians
about their tyrant
log and the snake, as Aesop
they complain
'Bear this evil, lest a greater befall you' (1.2).
Pisistratus:
The
as
monarch
a
predator
with
imperium-,
the
princeps
and
his
as
companions
apes,
the rex who hides his true nature, then turns savagely on his
and bloodthirsty;
courtiers, however much
they may flatter him; the tyrannus as a great evil: with these
of the fable lies disturbingly
the
hidden
close to the surface.
meaning
figures
supposedly
The best illustration of this appears in the story of the gross insincerity of King Demetrius,
'Who is that catamite who dares to shake his booty
the tyrannus who inquires bitingly,
'That isMenander,
the writer,' he smoothly
informed,
(audet cevere) in my sight?' When
to this fable is
switches gear: 'No man could be more handsome'
The
introduction
(5.1).
in
its
of
Tacitean
dissection
of
the
epigrammatic
corruption
monarchy.
positively
Demetrius
'ut mos
has occupied Athens with wicked
imperium. The mob, as is its custom,
est vulgi', pours
in from all sides, pushing
and shoving,
and chanting
'Good Luck',
the principes,
'F?liciter!' The leading men themselves,
kiss the hand by which
they are
in silence the sad reversal of fortune. And creeping
in last of all
bemoaning
oppressed,
come the men living in retirement and pursuing a life of otium, lest their not having been
there might cause them harm.38 The indictment,
conveyed as vivid, compact description,
of Nero's
could come from Tacitus'
depiction
public life at Rome, with this difference:
or
Tacitus
under Nero,
condemned
from the safety of the future; Phaedrus wrote
Claudius.
from Phaedrus' work concerns
the
that emerges repeatedly
The other basic opinion
of
wisdom
of the individual. The crowd is
the
the
crowd
and
the
between
folly
opposition
it jostles itself to pay homage to the tyrant, 'ut mos est vulgi' (5.1),
the unthinking mob,
turns on the deposed tyrant (1.2), it comes prepared to jeer rather than
the 'turba petulans'
a spectacle
to watch
its own best
the crowd does not understand
(5.5.25-6).
Pointedly,
interests: the frogs trade a poor king for a much worse one (1.2); the sheep surrender their
(Zander 15); the flock is killed off by the butcher
guard dogs in a treaty with the wolves
one by one, realizing only when it is too late that if they had stood together they could have
that there is often more good
killed him (Zander 29). And there is a fundamental
principle,
foolish
in one
bears
man
than
repetition
in a crowd,
'plus
esse
after it is demonstrated:
in uno
'so what
saepe
quam
escaped
in
turba
boni'
the unwisdom
(4.5.1),
which
of the many,
the
38
/ illam osculantur,
succlamant.
'Ut mos est vulgi, passim et certatim ruit: / "F?liciter!"
qua
5-i-3-8:
Ipsi principes
sunt oppressi, manum,
/ tacite gementes
tristem fortunae vicem. /Quin etiam resides et sequentes otium, / ni defuisse
is well captured at Henderson,
flavour
noceat,
op. cit. (n. z), 155-60.
repunt ultimi.' The Tacitean
THE
PHAEDRUS
FABULOUS
117
/ unius
'ita quod multorum
of one man discovered',
shrewdness
fugit inprudentiam
hominis repperit sollertia' (4.5.48-9). Similarly with the failed cobbler who acquires a false
success was
reputation as a great doctor: when the king exposes him, he confesses that his
skill but on the dullness of the mob, 'stupore vulgi'. The king calls a
based not on medical
in entrusting their lives to one to whom
contio and rebukes the people for their dementia
entrust
the
not
crowd prefers the piggy sounds made
their
feet
would
Again,
(1.14).
they
by
scurra
the
on
to
stage
of
those
the
countryman,
until
the
latter
that
reveals
he
has
a real
pig hidden under his cloak: 'And that shows just what kind of judges you are!' (5.5). And
again, the swallow repeatedly warns the other birds about the sowing of the flax seed that
Simonides was ship
will be used in lime to trap them, to no avail (Zander 28). When
else
wrecked he took nothing with him off the ship, whereas
everyone
did, and was either
drowned at sea or robbed on land. As he reminded the survivors, he had told them at the
that was his (that is, his genius, or his
time that he had taken with him everything
then, the
they had lost all that they carried away (4.23). Repeatedly
reputation), while
a crowd
correct
man
more
for
foolish
crowd.
The
wise
whole
is
than
the
worth
way
single
to
for wisdom
to act is shown by the highly respectable centumviri, who turn collectively
in a complex
lawsuit: he clears away the shadows of calumny and dis
the deified Augustus
covers
the
sure
source
of
the
truth
(3.10).
A Roman of Rome, a keen reader of Horadan
satire, an expert in the ius civile (not a
a
observer of the treacherous days of the
Greek
crowded
with
freedmen),
sharp
discipline
Phaedrus presents himself as a man of firm and consistent
Julio-Claudian
principate,
but the weak should
opinions. Life is unfair, the powerful oppress the weak unrelentingly,
in life. The monarchy
above is at worst evil,
accept and make the best of their condition
so wrong-headed
as to act consistently
at best a sick joke. The mob below
is foolish,
to
wise
its
interests.
listen
the
If
would
best
man, he could point the
against
only people
even stoning him.
so
to
do
but
often
truth
and
not,
virtue,
way
they
ignoring, mocking,
This seems to be what Phaedrus believed. He was not a Greek freedman inscribing himself
as a man of the
into the ?lite of Rome. He was a member of the Roman ?lite masquerading
censure
true
into
under
the guise of
his
and
fables
feelings
eluding
people,
'transferring
a
never
we
stories'
What
with
shall
know
who
he was.
pr.
(3
35-6).
pity
jesting
made-up
APPENDIX
The
claim
reminiscences
literary
to
original
being
i: HORACE
IN PHAEDRUS
as those
of Ennius,
here,
Vergil,
from
various
but are culled
gathered
observations,
and Ovid,
modern
above,
make
no
critics,
Horace
particularly
see
For
and Zander.39
Adrados,
Currie,
Thiele,
Hausrath,
Perry,
Oberg,
especially
a section
on vocabulary
shared
who
includes
and Phaedrus,
and della
Galli,
only
by Horace
contrasts
versions
who
of the same
fables
dall'ambiente
Corte,
('resa piu gentile
by Horace
to the text of Phaedrus
In addition
and Phaedrus
I have
elevato')
('crudamente
popolaresca').40
reconstructions
and throughout
the thirty
careful
from
used here
the prose
that are
paraphrases
in his Phaedrus
offered by Zander
bution
which
Phaedrus
jackdaws;
Horace,
all
1.3,
Horace,
the crow
but
a
vindicates
jackdaw,
rightly praised by Henderson,
as 'a serious contri
exercise'.41
in peacock's
is rejected
feathers
and
by both
peacocks
in borrowed
In
is ridiculed.
crow,
cornicula,
plumage
author
his betters.
is a clever
Phaedrus'
imitating
jackdaw
graculus,
1.3.19-20,
an
represents
Ep.
Solutus,
the
a
39
'Zur Arbeitsweise
des Phaedrus', Hermes
Adrados,
op. cit. (n. 2, 2003); Currie, op. cit. (n. 5); A. Hausrath,
op. cit. (n. 14); Zander,
op. cit. (n. 36).
(1936), 70-103; Oberg, op. cit. (n. 2); Perry, op. cit. (n. 5); Thiele,
40
e Scuola
R. Galli,
'Fedro e Orazio',
Paideia
'Orazio favolista',
Cultura
38 (1983), 195-9; F. d?lia Corte,
=
XI (1988), 35-41.
(1986), 87-93
Opuscula
41
Zander,
op. cit. (n. 36); Henderson,
op. cit. (n. 18), 313.
71
100
CHAMPLIN
EDWARD
ii8
since an old adage had it that jackdaws had nothing
substitution,
music).42
P. 1.13,
a fox
victim
intended
deceives
a crow
deceives
a captator,
into
gives a version of the proverbial
now
the
P.
die
are
a
2.5.83,
dog
the links.
P. 1.24, a frog inflates herself
no,
saying
keep
and
his
a bit
losing
beak
of
Sat.
cheese;
hiantem'.
'corvum
gaping,
fable from which Horace
a sunken
with
Sat.
attempt;
obsession
and
hide,
deal
dogs
with
lyres (that is, real
his
2.5.56,
Phaedrus
his image of the crow,
developed
tricked.43
trickster,
1.20,
in the
its beak
opening
a crow
to do with
imitating a cow, asks her children
Sat.
she bursts;
eventually
to drink
'corium
hide,
depressum',
by trying
to leave
a greasy
is unable
hide,
the
2.3.314-20,
'corio
and
river,
the
Dogs,
if she is bigger than it, they
to
herself
inflates
frog
the
uncto'.
a calf's
imitate
size from her child's description of the calf that crushed its siblings, he tells her she won't equal
it even if she bursts herself. Martial
10.79 follows Phaedrus' literal development of Horace. The
point of the fable in the Satires is the ridiculousness of the small Horace
imitating the great
Maecenas.
P.
'Humiles
1.30.1,
Phaedrus
combines
two
that is, a shrewd
and
passages;
potentes
the
of
the
with
a
tries
viper
judge, is doubly
a file,
the
reges
humble
the
third
/ emunctae
'facetus,
a man
1.4.6-7,
phrase,
in Latin
naris,
a well-blown
with
in these
literature only
the
of
founder
acknowledged
art,
poet's
respec
a man
to help
to
is forced
then
him,
a pasture
a stag,
a man
to help
with
enlists
the reins
from his mouth.
Phaedrus
adds
legal
enlists
dente
'improbo
Sat.
earthy
it is found
significant:
to describe
to eat
d?lirant
in Vergil's
the struggle of the bulls
senex';
This
and fable,
Lucilius
and satire.
Aesop
tively,
a boar,
a horse,
water
P. 4.4,
with
disputing
a horse,
the reins; Ep.
endure
1.10.34-8,
disputing
or
off his back,
but then cannot
him,
get the man
see below).
colour
(on which,
P. 4.8,
'Quidquid
contend
great
loser.
emunctae
naris
stans,
on the poet
Lucilius.
it is used
1.2.14,
Ep.
the
'When
dissident';
proverbial
to the Trojan War,
suffer', applied by Horace
and
the expulsion
G?orgie
P. 3.3.14,
ibi
'Aesopus
durus
versus',
componere
nose,
ubi
laborant
Achivi'.
plectuntur
Sat.
adpetit';
some
into
bites
envy
2.1.76-7,
thing (Horace) thinking it soft but finding it hard, 'dentem offendet'. In both cases the intended
victim retaliates: Horace
implicitly with his satire; the file in Phaedrus explicitly, mordacior.
The tooth of envy (livor, invidia) is proverbial and widespread,44 but this original version of a
is a neat
fable
with
Lucilius
himself
with
which
of
'lima
is a
Sat.
'iratis
2.3.8,
The
displeasure
born when
(Ovid,
Phaedrus'
Thus,
a fault-finder
Sat. 2.3.299,
4.10;
A commonplace
back.
Ex
conceit
literary
momorderit').
envy.
P.
tibi'.
file
as Horace
at work.
has explicitly
Just
compared
so
now
the
Phaedrus
line,
75),
including
previous
implicitly
so need
not be mentioned,
in the proverb,
while
is inherent
Phaedrus
image,
natus
of
the gods were
Ponto
'lima
1.5.19,
mordax'
revenge.
Later
'dis
42
natus
in the
inimicus
is found only
Aulus
jackdaw
43
Otto,
44
Otto,
45
Otto,
same
satire,
(123,
2.3,
at
recalling
104-28,
'deis
own
faults
est
and
of
the
viper
of
on
his
(in a bag)
hanging
iratis
the
natus
est similis
qui
iratis
natus',
('dis
at Plautus Miles
11.3
interlocutor
interlocutor
natus'
repels
expression
in these two authors,
retreat,
the bite
5.80.13,
et al.
4.24,
Apocolocyntosis
his
poem
himself
compares
the lima
uti'; Martial
work)
polished
but
Horace's
inimicis
(his
mordacius
P. 4.21.15,
'dis
this precise
dis atque
poetis';
paries
is proverbial,45
the gods
angry)
'lima
see his
Persius
22.21,
...
senex'
to
is unable
cf. Catullus
at Seneca,
and
iratis'),
atque
In Horace's
eius dis iratis natum').
'videte
corpus
in his
Horace
writes
little
how
country
poetry
inimicis
?
literary work
in turn is surely intended to recall the file that polishes
attacks
that
of
example
(2.1 passim,
Horace.
Envy
satire
provides
Miles
Plautus,
(Augustus
by
begins
is Horace's
on
314 ('dis
Claudius:
complaining
reply
and
of a miser,
picture
cf.
Mostellaria
314,
a
to the fable. The
19 (vetus adagium). Otto, op. cit. (n. 30), 155, cf. 15 for other references
Gellius,
Praef
I assume to be later.
in the Greek Aesopica,
which
appears
version at Holzberg,
op. cit. (n. 2), 42.-4.
op. cit. (n. 30), 95. A good analysis of Phaedrus'
even invidia mordax
at 5 pr. 9.
op. cit. (n. 30), 107; Haussier,
op. cit. (n. 30), 55, 100, 152-3, 268. Note
op. cit. (n. 30), no.
THE
PHAEDRUS
he
563):
of
enemy
is not
but
citharas
collects
is an
amens';
the
to
devoted
the
a
over
watches
gods;
FABULOUS
covers
(4.21.16-26)
music
of
the
same
the
precisely
or the
cithara
of
tibia;
the
his
guards
later in his fable
does
of
gods
et
'delirus
and
his miser
words:
defrauds
is
any Muse;
starving;
of a miser
description
caeca;
to
while
grain
in different
territory
acts mente
or
instrument
pile
so that his heir may drink them up. Phaedrus'
goods
II9
not
the
enjoy
defrauds
incense;
himself of food; and is the joy of his heir.
... murem
P. 4.24,
'mons
parturibat
ridiculus
mus'.
Employing
verse
but whose
big theme
falls
brevitatem
term).
P. App.
10,
7-9).
an
more
speaks
tanto
/ quae
commendari
The
Ars
Po?tica
adproba,
(4 ep.
proverb,
Phaedrus
short.
nascetur
montes,
139,
'parturient
a
of misguided
who
poets
promise
of 'you who
threaten
great
vaguely
po?tica
talks
Horace
but in the light of the Epilogue to Book 4 (three poems later) he
of poets with the monslmus
image in 4.24: 'Si non ingenium, certe
things but achieve nothing',
should be thinking precisely
validius'
Ars
peperit';
a Greek
anecdote
about
ends
Magni
with
miles
Pompeii
/ quando
iustius
d?bet
(472-6)
a classic
lines);
(thirty-four
sunt
poetae
molestus
poeta
Ep.
molesti
(Phaedrus'
an
2.2.26-40,
about Luculli miles
(fifteen lines). The soldier in Lucullus' army is robbed of his
savings while he sleeps. Enraged he storms the citadel of the enemy king, and he is rewarded
anecdote
sesterces.
to
Soon
and
the general
exhorts
him
20,000
honours,
after,
praise,
military
but the peasant
soldier
tells him
another
that the man who
will
castle,
go where
capture
cannily
to is the man
an effeminate
wants
the general
him
has
lost his purse.
In Phaedrus'
who
tale,
one
in Pompey's
the general's
soldier
steals
mules
with
their baggage
of clothes,
army
night
with
gold, and a mass of silver. When
while
away,
imperator,
Romans
comes
accused of the crime, he spits in his hand and waves
ooze
may
/ si vidi
eyes
mei,
but no
to a single
if he
thus
away
aut
Soon
tetigi'.
seen
has
or
touched
a barbarian
after,
the spittle
the
'sic,
loot,
the
challenges
effeminate
soldier
one dares
to take up the
The
combat,
challenge.
to
soon
returns
the soldier
with
assents,
offering
fight,
Pompey
reluctantly
a military
crown.
and Pompey
At
time he
awards
him
the same
imitates
ooze
his eyes may
if the soldier
thus
has not
stolen
away
oath,
swearing
forward
head,
earlier
enemy's
soldier's
his
that
swearing
oculi
exstillescant
the
the
his
baggage.
stories, no verbal borrowings,
Different
ately
Republican
as
generals
(and rivals) on campaign,
sets
at night
both
flouts the general
direct
that
speech
The
Horace.
but there should be no doubt
Horace,
recalls
role
signalled
Luculli miles
in motion;
and deed at their second meeting;
comments
of
the
on
the
honours
tale.
soldier-protagonist
he
only when
At
same
the
is reversed
needs
expected
of
purpose
the money
and
the
soldier
successfully
are rounded off by
with
the
plays
to thief. Horace's
declines
practical
whereas
challenge;
brave
and
his
the
accepts
the point
in
the tale
to make
to both
inducement
in
elements
the
is genuinely
had
used
cowardly,
stories.
Horace
great
Pompeii miles. A theft
a common
time, Phaedrus
victim
from
two
about
both anecdotes
to be
be
that Phaedrus deliber
anecdotes
and Magni
are won;
stories
military
to
introductions
parallel
in word
is brave
peasant-soldier
Phaedrus'
who
cinaedus,
might
and
therein
lies the
challenge;
is an
that poverty
Sallust's
Histories.4,6
the
by
and bravery,
and he probably
found
poetry
was
in
the
sit
difficile
point
expressed
promythium:
'quam
a man,
as true of Lucullus'
hominem
it is to know
as it
how
difficult
soldier
nosse',
something
on Horace's
is of Pompey's.
He
some
has built
reversed
of the elements
and
tale,
strikingly
a new moral:
or elsewhere
discovered
in Sallust
whether
his story
not
he found
sound
(it does
like
it),
he
could
he
why
while
explaining
Moreover,
Phaedrus'
an educated
expect
was
not writing
reader
lyric
is a hapax,
exstillesco
to
that
appreciate
true
the
source
was
the oath
cast
is proverbial,
as a
command
first-person
to knock, gouge, or pluck the speaker's eye out if he has done or will do
something.
twice
thus
another
will
in Plautus,
untrustworthy
someone
pluck my
but
most
rogue,
Horace,
verse.
at Horace's
remarkably
to
act
for his prey
promises
eyes out than hold you
Sat.
2.5.35-6,
in court,
in contempt
where
assuring
and make
It appears
the
him
that
captator,
'sooner
you the poorer
nutshell'.47
46
47
on Poetry.
C. O. Brink, Horace
Otto, op. cit. (n. 30), 250.
3 Epistles
Book
II: the Letters
to Augustus
and Florus
(1982), 281, ad loc.
by a
I20
EDWARD
All
three
jealous
reconstructed
familia,
defends
of Phaedrus
prose
paraphrases
of his master's
ass,
at
'si
5.4-6:
retell
the story of the
2.10, Rom.
(Ad. 17, Wiss.
1.16)
to act as a
his dog, who
decides
As
client.
fawning
canem
/ [hune]
et
immundissimum
sic dominus
diligit
si fecero.'
At Ep.
the hedonist
1.17.19-21,
Aristippus
for
affection
Zander
[quanto
himself
CHAMPLIN
officium
me]
a mordax
Cynicus:
magis
to be.
ass
The
runs
13; Wiss.
(Ad.
of the country
prose
paraphrases
version
now-lost
Phaedrus'
from
4; famous
comes
to
fable
is found
the
onto
climbs
ego
officium
rex
only
is now
(= cynic)
on
his hoofs
dog
him,
Horace's
Sat.
rendering,
twenty-two
lines,
Rom.
2.1;
mouse
compared
the
his
puts
and is beaten back to his stall with
dirties his clothes,
The
to his master,
tu
ipse mihi,
populo;
facio.'
Officium
facio,
two passages.
in these
'Scurror
against
est.
me
multo
alat
portet,
splendidius
Equus
sense
to a patron,
of a client
respects
paying
to comic
in Horace,
reversed
the roles
effect:
and
rectius
et
hoc
/
in the
precise
Phaedrus
has
ass wants
the
client,
licks
shoulders,
him,
clubs and stones.48
likewise
1.12)
the city mouse,
neat
Zander's
2.6.77-117.
with
Horace's
original
the
preserve
reconstructed
essence
restoration
Phaedrus'
of
rustic
the
lines;
forty-one
of
at Zander
half of the adventure, which Horace treats in twenty-two
lines, Phaedrus/Zander
dispatches in
the first two. In these first two lines, inevitably there are verbal reminiscences, but Phaedrus has
a clever
to insert
also managed
mouse's
'humili
casa',
recalling
to come
Alexis
live with
him
Two
to
the
in
(Ad. 59; Rom.
a cautious
fox
prose
paraphrases
where
1.1.73?5,
in Ep.
to
the urban mouse
dines
off
Vergil:
second
where
the shepherd
Eclogue,
... casas'.49
rura atque
's?rdida
humilis
nod
a now-lost
indicate
4.12)
notices
that many
an
acorn
version
tracks
in the
tries
Corydon
of
the
fable
to the den
lead
country
to entice
alluded
a sick
of
lion,
but none
lead away. Horace defends his thinking independently of the populus Romanus by
comparing it to the lion in his den, but the context is yet again literary, part of his refusal to
Maecenas'
request to take up lyric poetry again, and the fable had been retold by his exemplar
in satire,
Lucilius
where
W,
(1111-20
the
2: LAW
APPENDIX
The
no Romanist
social life which
hoc
ad
registers
some
civil,
1.1,
would
a wolf
causa
iurgii
who
oppress
fabricates
those
against
the
frogs
1.3,
the
jackdaw
secret
give Mercury
in borrowed
of
the perils
societas
one
1.8,
throat.
1.10,
with
The
animals
an
share
swears
a wolf
ape
over-enthusiasm,
rhetorical
stork
go
sitting
as
to ensure
mandata
factis,
that
so no
written
feathers,
legal component
A
person.
one
cow,
lamb
dies
aids
Jupiter
may
a
nece.
iniusta
a
she-goat,
follow
(mostly
The
fable
is
them.
in aliena
glory
of
('Nihil
bona.
iniuriae),
(patiens
sheep
of a stag they have killed,
the lion takes all four portions
consors.
iure
solemnly,
demands
vainly
to court.
as
a lamb,
and
the
against
the innocent
causis.
fictis
and
vignettes
including
as having a necessarily
recognize
a powerful
with
and a lion are socii. Partibus
including
IN PHAEDRUS
from
suffer
may
1122).
some
while
has been
evidence
overlooked.
The
significant
to fabulous
the application
of legal
situations
lawsuits,
jargon
seem
to be instances
and what
of juristic
thinking.
criminal),
1.2,
1.5,
lists
at
somehow
ad Ciceronem'),
of
examples
ius;
ing
written
Such
concerns.50
involved
studied, and related to the poet's
in Phaedrus have been well
legal passages
philosophical
is likewise
populus
A wolf
index.
Each
to
iurando,
the agreed
accuses
side
a fox
pleads
reward
reward,
of
his
48
As Zander points out (op. cit. (n. 36), 13-14), Phaedrus'
as here. In Babrius' version, No.
129, the beast dies.
49
Zander,
op. cit. (n. 36), 8-11, citing Vergil, Eel. 2.28-9.
50
note
to observations
in general works,
In addition
e modello
nella favola fedriana' Maia
giudiziario
giuridico
bei Phaedrus',
RhM 139 (1996), 146-65
(who does not cite
the
case
fables
a crane
'pactum
crime
removes
if she
of
thoroughly
concerning
a bone
stuck
in his
praemium'.
theft,
'arguebat...
to
through
asses
frequently
the valuable
papers
specifically
34 (1982), 227-40 and E. Oberg,
Moretti).
furti
the
mix
end,
humour
crimine',
'causam
and pity,
of G. Moretti,
'Lessico
'R?mische Rechtspflege
THE
PHAEDRUS
cum
and
suam',
p?rorassent
one
to believe
it is hard
1.13,
he who
1.16,
a stag
surety,
'lupo
vocat
surety,
a
reputation
a
pays
of
both
because
guilty
even when
fraus,
for
a boar
1.22,
a man
down
an
The
an old
redresses
a weasel
tells
no
one
must
a fine
3 pr.
the
3.10,
truth
should
of what
story
be
of
testimony,
solvit'.
When
'damnata
merces
fraud,
an old
accuses
he
man
she
fraudis.
lion.
that
is, not to write
than
this
legal,
an
injury,
laeserit,
simile iure' (literally, must pay
commentators
reminded
non
laedere'.
persolvit
cruce'.
one
of
of
fraude.
'poenas
opinion
and extensive
event
actual
within
prava
The
tells
loves
his
lies about the boy and
is to be
motive
proximum'.
man
A married
his memory.
freedman's
se
'stulte
foolishly,
judges
(sixty lines) of his trials, Phaedrus
secretly fills his head with
freedman
of adultery:
the
heredem
suffici
'sperante
and
a wrong
before
an
inflict
does
'alterum
a sow
and
eagle
powerful
son. His wicked
his mother,
whom
in his master's
will,
false
debebat
has
index.
dramatic
to be
have
1.1.10.1),
(Dig.
testis,
examined
laeserit
and
an
at a rich,
purports
and teenaged
wife
that
house,
commercial
'multandum
similarly,
justice'
with
In the most
iudicet sententia'.
the
of
as accusator,
a stone
throws
her
swears
his
more
if someone
but
nocendum,
nocendum
'precepts
a Sejanus
a man
3.5,
Nulli
law).
a contubernium
upsets
41-2,
nulli
harmed,
fundamental
a cat
2.4,
left with
testis',
against
from
vanum
he
that
'citatus
iniuriam',
mice
for keeping
beneficium':
credit
'imputare
that he must be punished
same
the
by
Ulpian's
truth.
down of a debt.
be
the fable warns
to take
not
veterem
'vindicavit
wrong,
benefit,
imaginary
refers to the writing
1.26,
speaks
dog
1.21,
the
'dat poenas'.
penalty,
a
for the return
of bread
sues,
calumniator,
falsely
sheep
was
a
to witness,
A
it
wolf
called
he
claims
depositum).
(presumably
not one but ten loaves,
condemned
the sheep
owed
and the sheep,
by
non
not owe,
to pay a debt
is forced
she does
falso
testimonio',
'quod
sees the wolf
in a pit she declares
this to be the wages
afterwards
dead
1.17,
characters:
known
their
he
a wolf
with
of wheat
venditio),
standing
emptio
(presumably
peck
a
to stand
asks
author
that when
remarks
improbi
fraudator
and
The
find
the debtor
results.
wonders
where
she will
sheep
a
for
sheep
them
finds
flattery
evil
sponsum,
dies
advenerit.'
'cum
sponsor
a
Sponsore'.
ape
a
has
in false
delights
asks
the
who
121
FABULOUS
as next
substituted
heir
a trap
sets
husband
jealous
for
his virtuous wife, and in the dark mistakenly kills his son. When he realizes his error too late,
to the
he kills himself with the same sword. The scene then shifts abruptly and confusingly
court
of
down
have
How
the
had
the wife
the freedman
basis
legal
for
as
poenas,
damnandam.
a eunuch
3.11,
accuser
to
combining
does
why
3.13,
before
the
bees
his
truth
cause
of
the
and
a wasp
honeycombs
bees
agree,
accuse
drones
The
wise
(how,
we
evil,
an
heir
inheritance
where
cases,
she
insontem,
bona
possideat',
him,
testes
as
The
in a will,
named
emperor
are not
dispels
The
told).
is more
wife
the
while
obscene
integritatis,
testicles
and
arguis,
of
a wrong
of
a
the
unnamed
is weighed
and
leaves
heir
her
several
on
intes
of
shadows
to
and
be
accuser?
integritatis
caused
pun
as
all
physical
by Fortune,
and
Fortunae
dis
luat
condemned,
abuse,
impossible
wholeness.
the matter
and
punished,
than
pitied
petulant
but
indices
calumnia
is to be
body. The eunuch admits
legal
The
iurisiurandi fidem', that
freedman
words
of his defective
the
'ut adiuvaret
dispute
honeycombs
ownership
'lis ad forum
deducta
The wasp
est, vespa
judice'.
judge,
to
to their word,
for comparison,
the drones
refuse
keep
and the judge
renders
his sententia,
the property
awarding
as
poet
as an
or
was
and who
inheritance,
Beyond
litigabat.
the damnum
innocence,
of testes
ideas
the man
the wife's
issue.
of
is in court,
the
handled
to help them fulfill their oath,
source
taunts him with
witnesses
make
the
the
as
inherited,
challenging
resolve
that
in the suit as a substitute heir, if there had been a will? What
involved
turn to the divine Augustus
is, they cannot
covers
the sure
court
the
summoned,
Innocent,
postularunt.
because
she possesses
the property,
'quod
of an innocent
innocentis
woman,
feminae.
suspicion
the case
unclear.
tacy?Was
was
had
by malign
defend
patroni
issues
at Rome,
the widow
centumviri
the
accusatores
iurgium,
his
that he has no
to translate,
he asks,
But,
delictum.
is brought
to
proposes
each
side
pactam
fidem,
to the bees.
but
court
122
EDWARD
19, Death
3 ep.
a debitum.
demands
a
reus
3 ep. 22,
confessus
he is supported
by
his
CHAMPLIN
has
won
often
patron's
wants
So Phaedrus
pardon.
Cf.
4 pr. 19.
iudicium.
a horse
over
a
and a boar
between
of water
4.4, a lis arises
pool
to a man
and
drinks
the boar
bathes.
The
horse
and
appeals
to rei vindicatio).
rei' (a nod
because
of 'parvae
vindictam
4.5,
a widow
is made
which
inheritance,
'heredem
includes
sub
condicione'.
mundum
The
muliebrem
matic
the mother
instructions,
4.11, a thief robs a temple. He will
'cum
arrives,
the
4.19,
an
send
dogs
men. Terrified
mandata
venerit
adscriptus
iuris
consults
take
but
precautions,
the
juristic
neither
the daughters
and when
has
each
solves
the
the appointed
riddle.
day of punishment
dies'.
to Jupiter
embassy
divide
(standard
100,000. Baffled by these enig
Aesop
atone for his guilt when
poenae
to
about
complain
by his face, they fill his palace with
and
rnsticum
that
modo,
aut
fruantur',
in vain.
peritos,
servitutem
finds
she must
is that
condition
that
the horse
where
(presumably),
but
then
she has received she is to give her mother HS
relinquished what
himself
wins,
instrumentum
and
It is also
her three daughters.
restricted
among
equally
nor
what
'ni data
receive,
enjoy
they
possideant
terms)
possess
to congratulate
now
terrified,
again
the
contumeliis
dung. The
the
by
from
are given new
thunder,
god's
suffer
they
ambassadors
defecate
they
again, but now their dung is perfumed. All of the gods demand redress for the wrong,
iniuriam. A trial follows. Jupiter says it is not hard to impose punishment for the
vindicandam
offence,
pro
'poenam
suffer
the
The
culpa'.
will
dogs
of men,
contumelia
because
will
they
by sniffing the behinds of strange dogs.
4.22, Envy (Livor) considers a judgement,
4.26,
verses
in Phaedrus'
inferior
anything
Simonides
a reward
get
a
of
instead
sent them will
for
searching
iudicare. He will maintain
not
is Phaedrus',
a poem
to write
agrees
be
constantly
'certo
boxer,
quovis
5.3, a bald man
slaps his head trying to hit a fly, thus adding contumeliam
bald
chance,
'venia
5.5, on
audience
those
suffixi
who
in the
the
10,
App.
an oath,
App.
laedendi,
decet
donari
stand
theatre
luerunt
2, a cock
his
Zander
9,
Zander
12,
a bat
Zander
27,
a
gods.
to iniuriae, as the fly
not
did
have
to one
be given
to
intent
the
who
offends
by
shows
the
peccat'.
indicio,
are.
judgement,
indices
in error.
made
A
countryman
they
is tried
theft
for
before
in his
Pompey
and
praetorium,
cats
as
hungry,
eat
they
asks
privately
A
litter-bearers.
a hawk
fox
master
their
to be
his
warns
and
him
'fecit
swears
'cruci
crucifixion,
dolum.
against
in a fight
vindicem,
champion,
shepherd
dying
their
plead
and
causam
case,
to eat
prepares
is accused
is detected
kite
must
pay
and
the
before
him
fera
with
another
is the judge in their dis
in court,
forum
eins,
the hawk
him.
crimine
falso
in frans
exponere,
the
When
facinoris'.
partes
the hawk will devour his rival. As it turns out, the hawk
parties
suborner
a
should
pardon
he
fraudatus,
poenas'.
cock, hoping
Both
because
have robbed the temple of Jupiter pay the penalty with
has
18, a cock
App.
to feel
societas
begins
pute.
seizes
poor
soldier
himself
forgives
The
pretio'.
iurandum.
15, men who
Zander
a
by
he
the fly. Thus,
casu
qui
what
effeminate
ius
that
that
pignore
is defrauded,
out. The
points
mentem
do harm,
replies
unlike
always
ambassadors
conductus
boxer 'opus adprobavit' but pays only one third of the price. Simonides
and feels hurt by the iniuria.
man
their
Aesop's.
a victorious
for
indicio:
pro
judgement,
to depart, but will always be hungry, and those who
they will be allowed
and
thrown
'damnatus
tarn
penalty,
'poenast
to
the
pudendo
metuenda',
beasts.
crimine'.
for
harming
altars
of
the
THE
PHAEDRUS
with
partners
lion
the
Sun
the
(1.5);
123
SOCIETY
to devour
invents pretexts
by the strong: the wolf
of the weak
to be
unsafe
ON
3: PHAEDRUS
APPENDIX
Oppression
FABULOUS
the
oppresses
a kennel
a bitch
a sheep
borrows
(1.17);
to eject
them
are grown
the owner
defies
to bear
in which
an
(1.19);
an
is poor'
(2.1); a crow,
'no one
is sufficiently
that
at Aesop
with
impunity
is rich and poverty
'greed
a turtle's
shell,
proving
a stone
has thrown
who
carries
eagle
about the bulls' fight, since 'the humble
frogs worry
raise
and
and when
puppies,
a fox's
children
(1.28);
the powerful
an
shows
counsellor,
protected
one
throws
who
sparrow
her
off
suffer when
evil
the
(1.9); a dog and a wolf defraud
the hare in the eagle's claws is himself killed by a hawk
mocked
the lamb (1.1); it is
(1.6);
frogs
they
the
(1.30);
quarrel'
to open
(2.6); a man
man
is
and
how
eagle
the powerful'
against
at a rich and powerful
crucified (3.5); the cicada annoys the owl by its screeching, with fatal consequences
(3.16);
Aesop is flogged because he tells the truth (App. 17); a slave is starved, flogged, and over
worked, but not given the freedom he deserves (App. 20); a hawk makes a nightingale sing to
save
its babies,
be
content
starts
but
to eat
them
with
not
in life,
station
his
anyway
(Zander
13).51
the frogs ask for a king and regret it (1.2); the jackdaw should
and acceptance:
Resignation
to be a peacock
try
(1.3);
the master
is alarmed
enemy
by
soldiers, but his donkey does not care whom he serves (1.15); the sheep defrauded by a wolf is
happy to see him dead in a pit, thanks to the gods (1.17); his animal victims brutalize a sick lion
(1.21: Phaedrus disapproves); a frog bursts herself imitating a cow, the promythium being that
the
man
poor
in another's power
easy
crow
danger
you
on whom
(4.6);
safety
tells a sheep
principes
it when
bear
he has
imitate
it is better
(2.7);
(4.4); while
must
to
he wishes
when
perishes
to great
is open
wealth
been
to
are safe, while
the powerful
the poor
(1.23);
to put oneself
suffer
the anger
of others
than
are endangered
your
riding,
by bad times, the minuta
inferiors
in virtue
are
'I despise
the weak
and
give
plebs hide in
like
treated
way
you
to the
a
(4.18);
stronger;
I know whom to harry and whom to fawn upon with crafty words. That's why I prolong my
old age to a thousand years' (App. 26); if you are willing to give up your property you can live
in safety
the
30);
(App.
mouse
country
lives
safely
in his
the
poverty,
city
mouse
worries
sur
rounded by riches (Zander 4); the donkey forgets his station in life, imitates the master's
favoured dog, and is beaten (Zander 6); the fable of the belly confirms the social order (Zander
7);
suicidal
(Zander
worked,
hares
22).
who
advice
poet's
runs
away.
are worse
are
encounter
who
off
then
they
they
frogs
in the slave,
is best
and over
summed
up
starved,
flogged,
to him:
the question
if he is treated
like that when
he has
puts
when
reconsider
The
Aesop
done nothing wrong, what will happen if he actually does offend? The slave returns to his
master ?
deterred (literally: frightened off) from flight (App. 20). Occasionally
the humiles can
fend off the sublimes through their own efforts, as the fox does when rescuing her young from
the
eagle
vention
(1.28),
but
such
(1.17, the wolf
victories
are more
likely
in the pit) or the problems
not
due
to
themselves,
of the powerful
but
to divine
(1.21, the dying
inter
lion).
Princeton
University
[email protected]
51
It might be noted parenthetically
that as a good lawyer Phaedrus
has no illusion about the judicial system.
are corrupt, witnesses
are corrupt. As for judges, it does not bode well that the first one we meet
Prosecutors
is an
and by a hawk who is both crooked and rapacious; while among human
ape, to be followed
by a wasp,
judges, the
are clueless,
the centumviri
and 'Sejanus' is a monster.
people are credulous,