ÆSOP, the Phrygian, lived in the time of Solon, about the 50th Olympiad, under the reign of Cræsus the last king of Lydia. As to genius and abilities, he was greatly indebted to nature; but in other respects not so fortunate, being born a slave and extremely deformed. St Jerome, speaking of him, says he was unfortunate in his birth, condition in life, and death; hinting thereby at his deformity, servile state, and tragical end. His great genius, however, enabled him to support his misfortunes; and in order to alleviate the hardships of servitude, he composed those entertaining and instructive fables which have acquired him so much reputation. He is generally supposed to have been the inventor of that kind of writing; but this is contested by several, particularly Quintilian, who seems to think that Hesiod was the first author of fables. Æsop, however, certainly improved this art to a very great degree; and hence it is that he has been accounted the author of this sort of productions:
Æsopus auctor quam materiam reperit,
Hanc ego polivi versibus senariis. PHÆD.
Mine is the task, in easy verse,
The tales of Æsop to rehearse.
Tha.
The first master whom Æsop served, was one Carassius Demarchus, an inhabitant of Athens; and there, in all probability, he acquired his purity in the Greek tongue. After him he had several masters; and at length came under a philosopher named Idmon or Iadmon, who enfranchised him. After he had recovered his liberty, he soon acquired a great reputation amongst the Greeks; so that, according to Meziriac, the report of his wisdom having reached Cræsus, he sent to enquire after him, and engaged him in his service. He travelled through Greece, according to the same author; whether for his own pleasure, or upon the affairs of Cræsus, is uncertain; and passing by Athens soon after Pisistratus had usurped the sovereign power, and finding that the Athenians bore the yoke very impatiently, he told them the fable of the frogs who petitioned Jupiter for a king. The images made use of by Æsop are certainly very happy inventions to instruct mankind; they possess all that is necessary to perfect a precept, having a mixture of the useful with the agreeable. "Æsop the fabulist (says Aulus Gellius) was deservedly esteemed wise, since he did not, after the manner of the philosophers, rigidly and imperiously dictate such things as were proper to be advised and persuaded; but framing entertaining and agreeable apologues, he thereby charms and captivates the human mind."—Æsop was put to death at Delphi. Plutarch tells us, that he came there with a great quantity of gold and silver, being ordered by Cræsus to offer a sacrifice to Apollo, and to give a considerable sum to each inhabitant: but a quarrel arising betwixt him and the Delphians, he sent back the money to Cræsus; for he thought those for whom the prince designed it, had rendered themselves unworthy of it. The inhabitants of Delphi brought an accusation of sacrilege against him; and pretending they had convicted him, threw him headlong from a rock. For this cruelty and injustice, we are told they were visited with famine and pestilence; and consulting the oracle, they received for answer, that the god designed this as a punishment for their treatment of Æsop: they endeavoured to make an atonement, by raising a pyramid to his honour.
Æsop, Clodius, a celebrated actor, who flourished about the 670th year of Rome. He and Roscius were contemporaries, and the best performers who ever appeared upon the Roman stage; the former excelling in tragedy, the latter in comedy. Cicero put himself under their direction to perfect his action. Æsop lived in a most expensive manner, and at one entertainment is said to have had a dish which cost above eight hundred pounds; this dish, we are told, was filled with singing and speaking birds, some of which cost near 50l. The delight which Æsop took in this sort of birds proceeded, as Mr Bayle observes, from the expence. He did not make a dish of them because they could speak, according to the refinement of Pliny upon this circumstance, this motive being only by accident; but because of their extraordinary price. If there had been any birds that could not speak, and yet more scarce and dear than these, he would have procured such for his table. Æsop's son was no less luxurious than his father, for he dissolved pearls for his guests to swallow. Some speak of this as a common practice of his; but others mention his falling into this excess only on a particular day, when he was treating his friends. Ho-
race * speaks only of one pearl of great value, which he dissolved in vinegar, and drank. Æsop, notwithstanding his expences, is said to have died worth above 160,000l. When he was upon the stage, he entered into his part to such a degree, as sometimes to be seized with a perfect ecstasy: Plutarch mentions it as reported of him, that whilst he was representing Atreus deliberating how he should revenge himself on Thyestes, he was so transported beyond himself in the heat of action, that with his truncheon he smote one of the servants crossing the stage, and laid him dead on the spot.