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Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus

Appendix X. Pompeius et miles (Perry 538)

Quam difficile sit hominem nosse

Magni Pompeii mile uasti corporis
fracte loquendo et ambulando molliter
famam cinaedi traxerat certissimi.
Hic insidiatus nocte iumentis ducis
cum ueste et auro et magno argenti pondere
auertit mulos. Factum rumor dissipat;
arguitur miles, rapitur in praetorium.
Tum Magnus: "Quid ais? Tune me, commilito,
spoliare es ausus?" Ille continuo exscreat
sibi in sinistram et sputum digitis dissipat:
"Sic, imperator, oculi exstillescant mei,
si uidi aut tetigi." Tum uir animi simplicis
id dedecus castrorum propelli iubet,
nec cadere in illum credit tantam audaciam.
Breue tempus intercessit, et fidens manu
unum de nostris prouocabat barbarus.
Sibi quisque metuit; primi iam mussant duces.
Tandem cinaedus habitu, sed Mars uiribus,
adit sedentem pro tribunali ducem,
et uoce molli: "Licet?" eum uero eici,
ut in re atroci, Magnus stomachans imperat.
Tum quidam senior ex amicis principis:
"Hunc ego committi satius fortunae arbitror,
in quo iactura leuis est, quam fortem uirum,
qui casu uictus temeritatis te arguat."
Assensit Magnus et permisit militi
prodire contra; qui mirante exercitu
dicto celerius hostis abscidit caput,
uictorque rediit. His tunc Pompeius super:
"Corona, miles, equidem te dono libens,
quia uindicasti laudem Romani imperi;
sed exstillescant oculi sic" inquit "mei,"
turpe illud imitans ius iurandum militis,
"nisi tu abstulisti sarcinas nuper meas."


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.