Phædrus

, one of the disciples of So crates. Cicero , de Natura Deorum , bk. 1 .――An Epicurean philosopher.――A Thracian who became one of the freedmen of the emperor August us. He translated into iambic verses the fables of Æsop, in the reign of the emperor Tiberius. They are divided into five books, valuable for their precision, purity, elegance, and simplicity. They remained long buried in oblivion, till they were discovered in the library of St.  Remi, at Rheims, and published by Peter Pithou, a French man, at the end of the 16th century. Phædrus was for some time persecuted by Sejanus, because this corrupt minister believed that he was satirized and abused in the encomiums which the poet everywhere pays to virtue. The best editions of Phædrus are those of Burman, 4to, Leyden, 1727; Hoogstraten, 4to, Amsterdam, 1701; and Barbou, 12mo, Paris, 1754.