16: De Leone et Apro et Tauro et Asello

The Lion, the Boar, the Bull, and the Ass

An aged lion, now feeble, is assaulted by the animals he has previously wronged (see Fable 6). 

Also knows as The Lion Grown Old. Other versions: Perry 481.

1  gravitās annōsa: “aged heaviness," i.e., "burdensome old age” or "sluggish old age" (OLD gravitas 2).

2  inglaciat: "freezes over," "chills," a rare and lovely medieval Latin coinage (DMLBS inglaciare).

2  corpus corque: direct objects of inglaciat. 

2  senīle: accusative neuter singular with cor.

3  pēnsat ... vulnus: “inflicts a wound (as compensation).” 

3  veterī prō vulnere: “in return for an old wound.”

4  frontis ... tēlō ... utrōque: “with each weapon of his forehead," i.e., his horns.

4  eum: i.e. the lion.

5  asellus iners: the donkey was proverbially lazy, see Fable 11.

5  frontem calce sigillat: “marks his forehead with his heel." There’s a moment when a horse or a donkey has kicked you, if the kick lands really hard, when it will physically leave a bruise on your skin that is in the same exact shape as a hoof. This seems to be the sense of sigillat here, since it generally means “to stamp a seal on a letter” or “to leave a mark or a trace.”  

6  sōlō gemitū: gemitus means "groan," but is also regularly used of the roar of an angry or wounded lion (TLL gemitus II.A). So the lion could be responding to these actions “with only a groan” or "with only a roar" (depending on how sad the reader wants to make this old lion). 

7  omnia: you would expect the masculine here rather than the neuter, since these are animals not things, but the neuter makes it feel a bit more impersonal and distant.  

7-8  Dormit ... dormit ... dormit: pathetic anaphora.

9  Cui: "(the creature) whom," dative after nocui, as normal. Now we get a personal pronoun, and things become more personal, in contrast to the omnia above.  

10  prō pietāte: “in return for kindness.”

11  timeat: “let him fear,” pres. jussive subj.

11  sē nōn fulcit amīcō: “does not support himself with a friend.” Amicō is singular for plural. 

12  nec dare vult fēlīx, quam miser optat, opem: order: (et quī) fēlīx nec vult dare opem, quam miser optat. The emphatic word fēlīx ("fortunate") suggests we are talking about the wealthy who decline to aid (dare opem) the less fortunate and then bitterly regret it when the tables have turned and they themselves are wretched (miser). See Fable 6 for a lion who does not share.