Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus
Book III - III. Aesopus et Rusticus (Perry
495)
Vsu peritus hariolo ueracior
uulgo perhibetur; causa sed non dicitur,
notescet quae nunc primum fabella mea.
Habenti cuidam pecora perpererunt oues
agnos humano capite. Monstro territus
ad consulendos currit maerens hariolos.
Hic pertinere ad domini respondet caput,
et auertendum uictima periculum.
Ille autem adfirmat coniugem esse adulteram
et insitiuos significari liberos,
sed expiari posse maiore hostia.
Quid multa? Variis dissident sententiis,
hominisque curam cura maiore adgrauant.
Aesopus ibi stans, naris emunctae senex,
natura numquam uerba cui potuit dare,
"Si procurare uis ostentum, rustice,
uxores" inquit "da tuis pastoribus."
Latin text from Phaedrus at The
Latin Library (Ad Fontes), English translations from The
Fables of Phaedrus Translated into English Verse by Christopher Smart
(London: 1913). Ben Perry, Babrius and Phaedrus (Loeb),
contains the Latin texts of Phaedrus, with a facing English translation, along
with a valuable appendix listing all the Aesop's fables attested in Greek and/or
in Latin. Invaluable.
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