INTRODUCTION. xiii. 



that did not either quote or mention .Esop. Plato describes 

 Socrates as turning some of .Esop's Fables into verse, 

 during those awful hours which he spent in prison, imme- 

 diately before his death. Aristophanes not only takes hints 

 from /Esop, but mentions him much to his honour, as one 

 whose works were, or ought to be, read before any other. 

 Ennius and Horace have embellished their poetry from 

 his stores; and ancient sages and authors all concur in 

 bearing the most ample testimony to his distinguished 

 merits. Plutarch, in his imaginary banquet of the seven 

 wise men, among several other illustrious persons of ancient 

 times, celebrated for their wit and knowledge, introduces 

 ^Esop, and describes him as being very courtly and polite 

 in his behaviour. Upon the authority of Plutarch also, 

 we fix the life of -rEsop in the time of Crcesus, king of 

 Lydia, who invited him to the court of Sardis. By this 

 prince, he was holden in such esteem, as to be sent as 

 his envoy to Periander, king of Corinth, which was about 

 three hundred and twenty years after the time in which 

 Homer lived, and 550 before Christ. He was also deputed 

 by Crcesus to consult the Oracle of Delphi. While on this 

 embassy, he was ordered to distribute to each of the citizens, 

 four mince"'" of silver, but some disputes arising between 

 them and ^Esop, he reproached them for their indolence, 

 in suffering their lands to lie uncultivated, and in depend- 

 ing on the gratuities of strangers for a precarious subsist- 

 ence: the quarrel, which it would appear ran high between 

 them, ended in ^Esop's sending back the money to Sardis. 

 This so exasperated the Delphians, that they resolved upon 

 his destruction; and that they might have some colour of 

 justice for what they intended, they concealed among his 

 effects, when he was taking his departure from Delphi, a 

 gold cup, consecrated to Apollo; and afterwards pursuing 

 him, easily found what they themselves had hidden. On 

 the pretext that he had committed this sacrilegious theft, 



* The mina of silver was 12 ounces, about ^3 sterling. 



