1: De Gallo et Iaspide

The Cock and the Jasper

While searching through a dung heap for food, a rooster comes upon a precious gem. Rather than keeping the gem, however, the rooster leaves it aside, arguing that it might be valuable to someone else, but as he cannot eat it, it has no value for him. 

The moral of the fable compares the gem to wisdom, and the reader is told that they are not to behave as the rooster, casting wisdom aside, but to seek out the wisdom in the following fables. 

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Other versions: Perry 503 The Rooster and the Pearl.

This first fable was moved from the middle of the Phaedrus collection (3.12) to the beginning in this collection. It is lengthened and the moral shifted in order to show how the reader is to approach the rest of the collection, a lesson that would only be significant if the collection was viewed as unified, and meant to be understood in that way. Jill Mann (2009: 34) calls this a "fable about fables," and also points out that it was “probably for this reason that it was moved from its relatively late position in the Phaedrus to stand at the very beginning of the Romulus collection." In this fable, The emphasis on wisdom in the elegiac Romulus is certainly a move to a more complex understanding of this fable and its relationship to the rest of the fable collection.

1  rigidō ... ōre: "with his rigid mouth," i.e., beak, ablative of means. 

2  inventā iaspide: ablative of cause, “because the jasper has been found.” Jasper is a type of colorful gemstone. The common red color is due to iron inclusions. It can be highly polished, hence nitōris, "sheen," in the next line. In many versions the rooster finds a pearl.

3  ūtilī ... locō: “in a serviceable place,” i.e., a common place, a place where treasures would not be expected.

3  pretiōsa ... nātīque nitōris: "precious and of natural brilliance," describing the jasper, in contrast to the ugly "common place" (utilis locus) where it was found, the dung heap. In fact any shine would be the result of polishing, not “natural.”

4  nīl mihi messis: messis is a partitive genitive after nil. Mihi is a dative of reference. “Nothing of harvest for me,” "nothing I can eat." The rooster is too shortsighted to see its value.

5  si esset: impf. subj. in a present contrafactual protasis, “if (the person) were now here.”

5  quī dēbuit esse repertor: “who ought to be your discoverer,” i.e. someone who, unlike the rooster, understands the value and proper uses of the gemstone.

6  quem: the antecedent is nitor, “(the splendor) which.”

6  vīveret arte nitor: impf. subj. in a contrafactual apodosis, “the splendor would be living by his art,” for example, in a necklace or a highly polished seal.

8  plūs amō cāra minus: “I love less valuable things,” such as his common, inexpensive food.

9-10  tū ... notēs: "you (the reader) should recognize," jussive subjunctive. Here the focus switches to the moral of the story. 

9  gallō ... jaspide: "in the rooster ... in the jasper,” indicating the symbolism of each.

9  stolidum: "the foolish (person)," fools in general.

10  stolidō: dative of disadvantage, "for the foolish (person)." 

10  nil sapit: “has no flavor,” note the pun on sapit and sapiens.

10  ista seges: the harvest of wisdom to be had from fables, which are, as we would say, "pearls before swine." In later Latin iste can mean "this." See DMLBS iste 3 a, "(w. ref. to document, literary work, inscription, etc.) this, the present (letter etc.)."