Babrius was the author of a collection of
fables written in
Greek.Practically nothing is known of him. He is supposed to have been a Roman, whose gentile name was possibly Valerius, living in the East, probably in
Syria, where the fables seem first to have gained popularity. The address to "a son of King Alexander" has caused much speculation, with the result that dates varying between the
3rd century BC and the
3rd century AD have been assigned to Babrius. The Alexander referred to may have been
Alexander Severus (AD 222‑235), who was fond of having literary men of all kinds about his court. "The son of Alexander" has further been identified with a certain Branchus mentioned in the fables, and it is suggested that Babrius may have been his tutor; probably, however, Branchus is a purely fictitious name. There is no mention of Babrius in ancient writers before the beginning of the 3rd century AD, and his language and style seem to show that he belonged to that period. In the first century BC,
Indian philosopher Syntipas translated Babrius' work into
Syriac, from where Andreopulos translated it back to Greek, since original Greek scripts had all been lost.
See more at Wikipedia.org...