Who is Phaedrus?

Phaedrus (c. 15 BC – c. AD 50), Roman fabulist, was probably a Thracian slave, born in Pydna of Macedonia (Roman province) and lived in the reigns of Augustus, Tiberius, Gaius and Claudius. He is recognized as the first writer to latinize entire books of fables, using the iambic metre Greek prose of the Aesop tales. He was the first person to translate into Latin and put into verse whole book of the Greek prose fables then circulating and attributed to Aesop.

Biography
According to his own statement (prologue to book III), he was born on the Pierian Mountain in Macedonia, but he seems to have been brought to Italy at an early age since he mentions reading a verse of Ennius as a boy in school. According to the heading of the chief manuscript he was a slave and was freed by Augustus.

He incurred the wrath of Sejanus, the powerful minister of Tiberius, by some supposed allusions in his fables, and was brought to trial and punished. We learn this from the prologue to the third book, which is dedicated to Eutychus, who has been identified with the famous charioteer and favorite of Gaius.

Phaedrus was familiar with the works of Greek and Roman writers. Though others before him had rendered fables into verse and used them in their work, Phaedrus considered himself a pioneering artist, and believed his poems would give him immortal fame. His fables include favourites such as ‘The Fox and the Grapes’ and the ‘The Wolf and the Lamb’.

Phaedrus became extremely popular in Europe during the Middle Ages.

In the 18th century, a manuscript was discovered in Parma that contained 64 fables of Phaedrus. 30 of these were new. Another manuscript was found in the Vatican and published in 1831. Later research identified 30 more fables as written by Phaedrus.