Aesop's Fables, translated by Laura Gibbs (2002)
594. AUGUSTUS AND THE MURDER
Perry 501 (Phaedrus
3.10)
It is dangerous to believe a story, and dangerous not to believe it.
I will quickly offer an example of each: Hippolytus died because the people
believed his stepmother, but when the people did not believe Cassandra,
it spelled the end of Troy. For this reason, the truth must be carefully
considered before an incorrect opinion results in a foolish judgment.
So that you won't be tempted to make light of antiquity and its mythical
tales, I will also tell you a story which happened in my own lifetime.
There was a certain married man who loved his wife very much and whose
son was almost old enough to assume the white toga of manhood. However,
one of the man's freedmen was hoping to be appointed as the man's immediate
heir, so he called the man aside and lied at great length about the man's
son and even more about the bad behaviour of his faithful wife. Finally,
he added something that he realized would cause the greatest possible
pain to a loving husband: the man's wife was being visited, said the freedman,
by an adulterer, thus defiling the reputation of the house with acts of
moral turpitude. The man was outraged at the thought of his wife's supposed
crimes, so he pretended to make a trip to the countryside, while secretly
hiding in town. Then all of a sudden he came home in the night and headed
straight for his wife's bedroom. His wife, meanwhile, had ordered their
son to sleep in her bed so that she could keep a close eye on him now
that he had grown older. While the servants ran here and there looking
for a light, the man was no longer able to hold back his explosive outburst
of anger. He approached the bed and felt a head there in the dark. When
he detected a man's haircut, he plunged his sword through the man's chest,
thinking of nothing but avenging his grief. When the lantern was brought,
he saw both his son and his noble wife sleeping there next to him. Deep
in sleep, his wife was not even aware of what had happened. The man then
punished himself in full for the crime he had committed by falling upon
the sword he had drawn in his own readiness to believe the worst. Informers
pressed charges against the woman and she was taken away to Rome to be
tried in court. Although guilty of no crime, she was plagued by jealous
suspicions about her taking possession of the family's property. Her advocates
stood by her, stoutly defending the claims of this innocent woman. The
judges then asked the divine Augustus to help them faithfully carry out
their sworn duty, since the complexity of the crime had them baffled.
Augustus first dispelled the darkness of the unfair charges laid against
the woman and then revealed the true explanation of what had happened,
as he pronounced the following sentence: 'Let the freedman who was the
cause of this wickedness be punished! Meanwhile, I decree that the woman
who has both lost her son and been deprived of her husband should receive
our pity rather than our condemnation. If the father had fully investigated
the alleged crimes and carefully sifted through the lies, he would not
have brought utter ruin upon his house with this appalling crime.'
You cannot ignore everything you hear, but you should not believe it
immediately, since those whom you least expect can turn out to be scoundrels
while entirely innocent people can fall victim to treachery. This example
may also serve as a warning to simple-minded people not to draw conclusions
from hearsay. Human ambition is multifarious, sometimes taking the form
you expect, and sometimes not; the man you know personally is the man
you really know. (I have explored this matter at greater length because
in other cases some people have been annoyed by my excessive brevity.)
Note: Hippolytus
was falsely accused of rape by his stepmother Phaedra, and Theseus pronounced
a fatal curse on his son. Cassandra,
the daughter of King Priam of Troy, had received the gift of prophecy
but at a terrible cost: although she spoke the truth, no one believed
her.
 Source:
Aesop's Fables. A new translation by Laura
Gibbs.
Oxford University Press (World's Classics): Oxford, 2002.
NOTE: New
cover, with new ISBN, published in 2008; contents of book unchanged.
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