FEDRE (Phaedrus)

Phaedrus; Phaedrus, c.. 15 g. BC. ME-ok. 50 g. n. e., Roman fabulist. Born in Macedonia, arrived in Rome a prisoner and was released by Augustus. In the reign of Tiberius fell into disgrace with the Emperor, but despite that he lived to old age. - From Aesop's fables (Fabulae Aesopiae) in 5 books. F. made a fable, never before did not come out in Roman literature alone, a separate genre, controlled by their own laws. His poetic fable, written by iambic, largely involves the treatment of the Greek fables, have reached us under the name of Aesop. But, along with tales about animals, F. there are also gleaned from other sources, historical anecdotes, short-story stories, myths, allegorical narratives, etc..

Inherent in this genre of moralistic tendency is expressed in a common criticism in the spirit of the Cynics-Stoic diatribe, using satire blamed not only the human weakness, but also the social conditions of the era. F. not recognized either in life or after death. Apart from vague references to some F. from Martial, appeal to the creativity of F. We meet only at Aviano ca. 400 g. Probably, in V. born prosaic version fables F. (in 4 books), known under the name of Romulus (as well as Latin Aesop), which was very popular in the Middle Ages and later. The product F. preserved with some shortcomings (the first 150 fables have survived 94). In editions of F. new time is added to his fables, the so-called Appendix Perrotina, containing 30 fables from the anthology H. Perotti, compiled ca. 1465 g. on non-existent today manuscript.