AEsop

AEsop, the accredited author of the celebrated fables, was born about 619 B.C., probably in Phrygia. He came to Athens as a slave, and was manumitted by Iadmon of Samos. According to Plutarch he visited the court of Croesus and rebuked Solon for his arrogance. The Lydian king sent him to Delphi with a large sum of money to distribute, but as he did not execute his mission to the satisfaction of the Delphians, they killed him, 564 B.C. Though antiquity is clear as to his having been the author of fables, none of them are extant, and it is impossible to trace his work amongst the productions of his numerous imitators.