Telling Tales on Caesar: Roman Stories from Phaedrus

This book contains a dozen entertaining stories written in colloquial Latin verse newly translated and commented on by John Henderson. The author, Phaedrus, was a freeman of Augustus who put Aesop’s Fables into five books of verse during the reign of Tiberius. He included a number of stories and anecdotes on everyday life situations as well as assorted satirical bits. Rarely read today, they take the reader to the heart of ancient Rome, into everyday corners of classical life and culture, high and low, during the reigns of the first emperors, Augustus and Tiberius.