Little is known about the life of the fabulist Phaedrus. The title of the principal manuscript of his work, the Codex Pithoeanus [P], identifies him as a freedman of the emperor Augustus. All other biographical evidence has been deduced from what Phaedrus himself says or does not say in his writings. His contemporaries, foremost among them Seneca the Younger and Quintilian, make no mention of him, although they both discuss the writing of fables in parts of their works (Ad Poly. 2.8.3, IO 1.9.2-3). The orthography of Phaedrus's name has come into question as well. The Greek form, Phaedros, is the form used in Codex P. About a century ago the French scholars Leopold Hervieux and Louis Havet pointed out that Phaeder, patterned on the formation of the names Alexander and Menander, deserved consideration.

Nevertheless, while a full-scale biography of Phaedrus will probably remain forever beyond anyone to write...