Aesopus
- Aesop, the Greek fabulist of Phrygia, in the time of Croesus; cf. Phaedr. 5 prol. The difference between Aesopic and Libystic fables, v. under Aesopicus.—Cf. Quint. 5, 11, 19; Gell. 2, 29.—
- II A tragic actor, friend of Cicero: noster Aesopus, Cic. Fam. 7, 1; Hor. Ep. 2, 1, 82; cf. Cic. Tusc. 4, 25; id. Div. 1, 37.
- 1. Gr. fabeldichter uit Frygië, ca. 550 v. Chr.; — adj. Aesōpīus (-pēus), a, um Aesopisch, van Aesopus;
- 2. Claudius of Clodius ~, tragediespeler in Rome ttv. Cicero.
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…honoris causa in scaenam redierant ii quos ego honoris causa de scaena decessisse arbitrabar. deliciae vero tuae, noster Aesopus, eius modi fuit ut ei desinere per omnis homines liceret. is iurare cum coepisset, vox eum defecit…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares
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…fuisse, dirupi me paene in iudicio Galli Canini, familiaris tui. quod si tam facilem populum haberem quam Aesopus habuit, libenter me hercule artem desinerem tecumque et cum similibus nostri viverem. nam me cum antea taedebat ,…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Familiares
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…, tempori meo defuerunt ; eaque populus Romanus non solum plausu sed etiam gemitu suo comprobavit. Vtrum igitur haec Aesopum potius pro me aut Accium dicere oportuit, si populus Romanus liber esset, an principes civitatis nominatim sum appellatus…
Cicero, pro Sestio
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…histrionibus spectari puto ; itaque nos raucos saepe attentissime audiri video ; tenet enim res ipsa atque causa ; at Aesopum, si paulum inrauserit, explodi. A quibus enim nihil praeter voluptatem aurium quaeritur, in eis offenditur ,…
Cicero, de Oratore
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…, nisi est animus ipse commotior equidem etiam in te saepe vidi et, ut ad leviora veniamus, in Aesopo, familiari tuo, tantum ardorem vultuum atque motuum, ut eum vis quaedam abstraxisse a sensu mentis videretur .…
M. Tullius Cicero, De Divinatione
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…qua ntum factis su ppetit Labo ris. quiesce igitur et volnus alliga. etiamsi Eurypylus posset, non posset Aesopus Ubi fortuna Hecto ris nostram acrem a ciem inclinata m. . et cetera explicat in dolore ; sic est…
M. Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes
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…deducas. noli spectare quanti homo sit ; parvi enim preti est qui tam nihili sit. sed tanto dolore Aesopus est adfectus propter servi scelus et audaciam ut nihil ei gratius facere possis quam si illum per te reci perarit…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem
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…Athenis solet esse multum et qui tum Athenis fuerat cum Licinius eo venisset, cum eum fugitivum esse postea ex Aesopi litteris cognosset, hominem comprehendit et in custodiam Ephesi tradidit, sed in publicam an in pistrinum non satis ex…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Quintum fratrem
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…iam rebus transactis et praeteritis orationes scribimus, num irati scribimus ecquis hoc animadvertit vincite num aut egisse umquam iratum Aesopum aut scripsisse existimas iratum Accium aguntur ista praeclare, et ab oratore quidem melius, si modo est orator ,…
M. Tullius Cicero, Tusculanae Disputationes
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…ea adferas quae me conficiunt ; ad quae gener accedit et cetera quae fletu reprimor ne scribam. quin etiam Aesopi filius me excruciat. prorsus nihil abest quin sim miserrimus. sed ad primum revertor quid putes faciendum, occultene…
Cicero, Epistulae ad Atticum
(Αἴσωπος). A famous writer of fables, the first author who created an independent class of stories about animals, so that in a few generations his name and person had become typical of that entire class of literature. In course of time, thanks to his plain, popular manner, the story of his own life was enveloped in an almost inextricable tissue of tales and traditions, which represent him as an ugly hunchback and buffoon. In the Middle Ages these were woven into a kind of romance. A Phrygian by birth, and living in the time of the Seven Sages, about B.C. 600, he is said to have been at first a slave to several masters, till Iadmon of Samos set him free. That he next lived at the court of Croesus, and being sent by him on an embassy to Delphi, was murdered by the priests there, is pure fiction. Under his name were propagated in all parts of Greece, at first only by tradition in the mouth of the people, a multitude of prose tales teaching the lessons of life under the guise of fables about animals. We know how Socrates, during his last days in prison, was engaged in turning the fables of Aesop into verse. The first written collection appears to have been made by Demetrius of Phalerum, B.C. 300. The collections of Aesop's Fables that have come down to us are, in part, late prose renderings of the version in choliambics by Babrius (q.v.), which still retain here and there a scrap of verse; partly products of the rhetorical schools, and therefore of very different periods and degrees of merit. A good text of the version by Babrius is that of Schneidewin (1865), and of Hartung with German notes and a translation (1858). See also Rutherford's edition of Babrius (London, 1883).
A great tragic actor at Rome, a contemporary of Quintus Roscius (q.v.), and, like him, on intimate terms with Cicero. Aesopus appeared upon the stage for the last time at the dedication of Pompey's theatre in B.C. 55. He left a large fortune to his son, who wasted it in luxury and dissipation, on one occasion dissolving a pearl worth $40,000, and swallowing it, in order to outdo the famous exploit of Cleopatra.
- Hdt. 2.134