Aesop's Fables: Phaedrus
Appendix XII.Iuuencus et bos uetulus (Perry
540)
Quomodo domanda sit ferox iuuentus
Paterfamilias saeuum habebat filium.
Hic, e conspectu cum patris recesserat,
uerberibus seruos afficiebat plurimis
et exercebat feruidam adulescentiam.
Aesopus ergo narrat hoc breuiter seni:
"Quidam iuuenco uetulum adiungebat bouem.
Is cum refugiens impari collo iugum
aetatis excusaret uires languidas,
'Non est quod timeas' inquit illi rusticus;
'non ut labores facio, sed ut istum domes,
qui calce et cornu multos reddit debiles.'
Et tu nisi istum tecum assidue retines,
feroxque ingenium comprimis clementia,
uide ne querela maior accrescat domus."
Atrocitati mansuetudo est remedium.
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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