18: De leone et mure

The Lion and the Mouse

A lion has a mouse in its clutches but lets it go. Later the mouse nibbles a net that has ensnared the lion and frees him. The high and mighty should protect the lowly.

Other versions: Perry 150.

1  blandītur: "caresses," "soothes," + dat.

3  pressus: "pressed by," i.e., "stepped on by."

4  lībrat: “weighs," “considers,” LS libro III.B. The lion is the subject.

4  supplicat: "humbles itself to," + dat., i.e., yields to. See LS supplico. Normally the verb is used of a person making a request, not one granting a request.

4  ira: supply leōnis.

5  ante: “beforehand,” i.e., before granting the request. What follows is the lion's logic in granting the request. In other versions, the mouse itself proposes these reasons. 

5  haec: neut. pl. acc., pointing to what follows.

5-6  quid ... laudis emēs: “what glory will you win?” laudis is partitive genitive (AG 346).

5  mūre peremptō: “with (the) mouse having been killed,” ablative absolute.

6  Summōs vincere parva pudet: “it is shameful for great ones to conquer small things.” The impersonal verb pudet takes an accusative of the person ashamed and infinitive or genitive expressing the thing he or she is ashamed of, as normal. Note the change in gender between summos and parva.

7  nece: morte, abl. after dignētur.

7  dignētur: "should deem worthy of," + abl. as normal, pres. subj. in a future less vivid protasis (+ acc. + abl., as normal).

7  leōnī: dative with dedecus. 

8  murī: dative with decus.  

8  coeperit esse: i.e., sit, potential subjunctive.

9  sīc vincere: sīc is emphatic: “to conquer in this way," infin. subject of est.

9  vincī: passive infin., predicate of est. 

10  crimen habet: “is blameworthy," "is a crime," an Ovidian phrase. 

11  sit tamen hoc decus: “nevertheless, let this be honor," i.e., "still, let it be granted (contrary to what I just said) that this would be an honorable thing...." The lion argues like an orator or rhetorician making a case.

11  sīc vincere: predicate.

12  minimō fīet ab hoste minus: order: fīet minus ab minimō hoste. 

13  dē pretiō vīctī: “on the worth of the conquered.”

15  grātēs: = grātiās. 

15  reddere: supply opem.

16  Sōlus ... diēs: "a lone day," "only a day," in apposition with mora parva.

17  subit: intrat.

17  rete: acc. after subit as normal (LS subeo II.A.1.b).

17  nec prōdest: impersonal: "it does not do (any) good," "it is no use."

18  damna loquī:  “to tell (of) his injuries.” 

19  circuit: = circum + it > circumeo -īre. The mouse is looking for weak places in the net. 

19  vincula: “ropes,” “cords.” 

20  ope: auxiliō.

20  pēnsat: "repays," + acc. + abl. (LS penso II.B.1).

21  potuit: = potuit facere.

21  prūdentia: "skill."

22  cui leo dāns veniam sē dedit ipse sibi: "while granting mercy to it (the mouse), the lion gave himself to himself" (Pepin). By setting the mouse free, the lion set himself free. 

23  Tu quī summa potes: “you who are capable of the highest things” + acc. The reader is imagined as a powerful individual.

23  parva potentem: substantival use of the participle, “one capable of (only) small things." In Babrius the moral is "Protect the poor, and don’t hesitate to rely on them."

24  si quis obesse nequit: “if someone does not hinder him" (Pepin).