=Phædrus=, the only noteworthy poet of Tiberius’s reign, is known to us by his fables. Of his life, we have few facts. He is supposed to have been brought from Thrace to Rome, as a captive; and to have lived there as the slave of Augustus, who, recognizing his latent talent, gave him an education and finally his freedom. In the sunshine of his patron’s smiles, Phædrus led a happy life; but on the death of Augustus he was exposed to the persecutions of Sejanus, who virtually controlled the state under the succeeding emperor, and who affected to see in the poet’s fables masked attacks upon his own vicious career. Phædrus, however, outlived all his enemies, and died at a good old age. The fables of Phædrus, preserved in a single manuscript, were discovered in an abbey at Rheims (1561), and, after narrowly escaping destruction at the hands of some French fanatics, were published to the world. In the main translated or imitated from Æsop, whom their author thus made known to the Romans, they commend themselves for their conciseness and simplicity, as well as for the moral lessons they convey. His “pleasant tales” may be judged of by the following specimens:— THE FOX AND THE GOAT. “A crafty knave will make escape, When once he gets into a scrape, Still meditating self-defence, At any other man’s expense. A fox by some disaster fell Into a deep and fencèd well: A thirsty goat came down in haste, And asked about the water’s taste, If it was plentiful and sweet? At which the fox, in rank deceit:— ‘So great the solace of the run, I thought I never should have done. Be quick, my friend, your sorrows drown.’ This said, the silly goat comes down. The subtle fox herself avails, And by his horns the height she scales, And leaves the goat in all the mire, To gratify his heart’s desire.” THE BALD MAN AND THE FLY. “As on his head she chanced to sit, A man’s bald pate a gadfly bit; He, prompt to crush the little foe, Dealt on himself a grievous blow. At which the fly, deriding, said:— ‘You who would strike an insect dead For one slight sting, in wrath so strict, What punishment will you inflict Upon yourself, whose heavy arm, Not my poor bite, did all the harm?’ ‘Oh!’ says the party,‘as for me, I with myself can soon agree; The intention of the act is all. But thou, detested cannibal! Bloodsucker! to have thee secured, More would I gladly have endured.’ What by this moral tale is meant Is, those who wrong not with intent Are venial; but to those that do, Severity is surely due.”—CHRISTOPHER SMART. The three great ornaments of Nero’s reign (54-68 A.D.) were Persius the satirist, Seneca, and his nephew Lucan.