Page:A new and general biographical dictionary; containing an historical and critical account of the lives and writings of the most eminent persons in every nation v1.djvu/137

 JE S O P. xvifdom has invented a new method. Apollonius, continuing his parallel, (hews, by icveral other rcalons, how much the: fables of /Efop furpafs thole of the poets : after which he tells a ftory that he had learnt of his mother in his infancy. /Kfop, it feems, being afhepherd, and feeding his flock near a temple of Mercury, often befought this god to gnnt him the poill-!- fion of wildom. Mercury had agreit number ot lui:ors, who all entered the temple with their hands full of rich offerings ; while /Efop, being poor, was the only one who made IH precious offerings, having prefentcd only a littie milk an-l honey, with a few flowers. When Mercury came to make a diftribution of wifdom, he had regard to the price of the offerings : he gave accordingly, philofophy to one, rhetoric to an'other, attionomy to a thud, and poetry to a fourth, He did not remember ./fop, till after he had finillied his diirribution ; and at the fame time recollecting a fable, which the Hours had told him when at nurfe, he bellowed on JE'op the gift of inventing apologues, which was the only one left in Wildom's apartment. JEfoo was put to death at Delphi. Plutarch tells us, that - ferjN '"- . r i, in i n.nm vm- he came there with a great quantity of gold and lilver, being dia , >p>5sCt ordered by Croefus to offer a f:crifice to Apollo, and to give a confiderable fum to each inhabitant ; but a quarrel arifmc; betwixt him and theDelphians, he fent back the facrificeand the money to Croefus ; for he thought that thofe, for whom the prince defigned it, had rendered themfclves unworthy of it. The inhabitants of Delphi contrived an accufation of fa- crilcge againft him, and pretending they had convicted him, threw him headlong from a rock. For this cruelty and in- juftice, we are told, they were vifited with famine and pefti- Jence ; and confultirg the oracle, they received for anlwer, that the god defigned this as a punilhment for their treat- ment of /Efop. They endeavoured to make an atonement by raifing a pyramid to his honour. jESOP, a Greek hifioriin, who wrote a romantic hiftory of Alexander the Great: it is not known at what time he lived. His work was tranllated into La-in by one Juliu^ Va- lerius, who is not better known than ^fop. Freinfhemiui has the following pafiage concerning this work : * Julius ' Valerius wrote a fabulous Latin hiftory of Alex;ir.d.r, " which by fome is afcribed to /Efop, by others to Callift- " henes. Hence Antoninus, Vincentius, Ufpargenfis, ajid others, have greedily taken their romantic tales. It m..y H 3 4t Aivciiaiu:
 * ' not be amifs to quote here the opinion of Barthius, in his