34 
is. entitled to but slight attention; for, 
were it liable to no other objection, it 
has been justly observed, that the inte- 
grity and talent which proeured that 
writer his liberty, wonld have availed 
but little to obtain any favour from the 
unworthy successor of Octavius. Be- 
sides the frequent allusions to Octa- 
vius Augustus in the fables, and the 
high respect in which his memory was 
held by the author, justify our previous 
inference, and warrantthe assumption, 
that he lived at Rome under Gesar 
Octavius Augustus, and enjoyed great 
prosperity during his reign. When, 
upon the decease of that prince, Tibe- 
rlus ascended the throne, the poet 
was subjected to severe persecution, 
having incurred the hatred of Sejanus, 
whose influence with Tiberius enabled 
hiim te exercise an absolute power in 
the empire, and who procured the 
eondemnation of Phedrus by means 
of false accusations, as may be col- 
lected from Prol. lib. 3. 
From what circumstances he drew 
upon himself the resentment of Seja- 
wus, appears doubtful. It has been 
supposed by some, that the recollec- 
tion of the benefits he had received 
from Augustus, having rendered him 
strongly attached to the posterity of 
that prince, — among whom were 
Agrippa and Germanicus, objects of 
the particular jealousy of Tiberius,— 
the notoriety of such an attachment 
would afford a sufficient opportunity 
to Sejanus of drawing down upon our 
author the displeasure of the gloomy 
and suspicious monarch. But this 
seems a very far-fetched supposition ; 
and Phzdsus* moreover admits, that 
he was himself the author of his cala- 
mities: from which it may reasonably 
be presumed, that some of his fables 
had given umbrage to Scjanus, or 
others. connected with the favourite. 
Eudeed, though at this distance of 
_time the point and ‘precise design of 
many Of the apologues are necessarily 
Tost to us, it appears pretty evident 
that the fable of the ‘Frogs de- 
mauding a King,” has reference 1o 
Lyceum of Ancient Literature. 
JAug. I, 
author’s fables, are to be found’ in 
Esop, he evidently, in translating and 
versifying them, took care to adapt 
them to the particular purpose he had 
in view, and the events that were 
passing around him. 
The freeness of the allusions and 
animadversions contained in seme of 
his fables, subjected him to the dislike, 
not only of Sejanus, but of many 
others, who perceived or imagined 
that their vices were censured m his 
pages. Hence he was subjected to a 
series of persecutions, which served 
greatly to embitter his existence, as 
we may infer from many passages in 
his Prologues and Epilogues, and 
more especially from his suppliant 
appeal to the compassion of Eutychus 
his patron,* at a time when, though 
conscious of ;his innocence, be was 
evidently labouring under some im- 
pending prosecution. 
The earliest of his fables appear to 
have been written, or at least publish- 
ed, in the reign of ‘Tiberius; and, 
according to some commentators, the 
last books made their appearance 
under the Emperor Claudius. The 
precise time of bis decease cannot be 
ascertained’: there is good reason to 
suppose that he lived to a considerable 
age; but we cannot coincide with those 
who represent him as having lived to 
the time of Domitian or Vespasian, as 
they adduce no satisfactory proofs of 
such extraordinary longevity. 
The only works of Phadrus which 
we possess are fiye books of Fables, in 
iambic verses, almost entively trans~ 
lated or paraphrased from Esop. ‘They 
were a length of time a desideratum 
to the modern admirers of classical 
literature, having remained in oblivion 
till the end of the sixteenth century, 
when they were discoyered in the 
library of St. Remi, at Rheims, and 
published by a Frenchman, of the 
name of Peter Pithou. Concerning 
the merits of these Fables, great diver- 
sity of opinion existed among the con- 
temporaries of Phedrus: while some 
lavished upon them the highest enco- 
miums, others reproached them with — 
excessive conciseness and frequent 
obscurity ; others, while they acknow- 
the mactive Juxury of ‘Tiberius, and 
the.crueltics exercised in his name by 
Sejanus ; and that of the “ Frogs and 
the Sun,” to the arrogance of the 
favourite in aspiring to the marriage 
ef Livia, the daughter of Germanicus. 
For, though the subjects of these, as 
indced of ‘the greater pari of our 
* Prol, lib, 3. 
i 
ledged their beauties, considered that 
the having uniformly adopted Ksop — 
for his model, excluded the author 
from any claim to the praise of origi- 
nality ; 
* Epil. lib, 3, 
