They both set out, in hopes to crawl

At night beneath the city wall;

And now the night, elaps’d eleven,

Possess’d the middle space of heaven,

When in a rich and splendid dome

They stopp’d, and found themselves at home,

Where ivory couches, overspread

With Tyrian carpets, glowing, fed

The dazzled eye. To lure the taste,

The fragments of a costly feast,

Remaining, drest but yesterday,

In baskets, pil’d on baskets, lay.

The courtier on a purple seat

Had plac’d his rustic friend in state,

Then bustled, like a busy host,

Supplying dishes boil’d and roast,

Nor yet omits the courtier’s duty

Of tasting, ere he brings the booty.

The country-mouse, with rapture strange,

Rejoices in his fair exchange,

And lolling, like an easy guest,

Enjoys the cheer, and cracks his jest—

When, on a sudden, opening gates,

Loud-jarring, shook them from their seats.

They ran, affrighted, through the room,

And, apprehensive of their doom,

Now trembled more and more; when, hark!

The mastiff-dogs began to bark;

The dome, to raise the tumult more,

Resounded to the surly roar.

The bumpkin then concludes, Adieu!

This life, perhaps, agrees with you:

My grove, and cave, secure from snares,

Shall comfort me with chaff and tares.

THE EMPEROR’S SLAVE

Aesop’s Fables

Phaedrus

Translated by Laura Gibbs, 2002

Phaedrus is said to have been a former slave and tutor in the imperial household at Rome. In the first century AD he set about translating Aesop’s fables into Latin verse and gathering them into collections. This is one of his own tales. Set in Misenum, in the Bay of Naples, it describes the condition of slavery in the time of Tiberius, who was Roman emperor from AD 14 to 37. Roman slaves aspired to ‘manumission’ or freedom, the literal meaning of manumission being ‘sending forth from the hand’, from the Latin words manus, ‘hand’ and mittere, ‘to send’, which they were granted to the accompaniment of a customary slap from their master.

There is a whole imputation of busybodies at Rome running all over the place excitedly, occupied without any true occupation huffing and puffing at frivolous pursuits, and making much out of nothing. They are an annoyance to each other and utterly despised by everyone else. Yet I would like to try to correct this crowd, if possible, by means of a true story: it is one worth listening to.