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DE AVIBUS SCARABEOS TIMENTIBUS

Source: Abstemius 37 (You can see a 1499 edition of Abstemius online, but I am doing my transcription from the 1568 edition of Aesopi fabulae in the EEBO catalog.)

Latin Text:

Magnus timor aves incesserat, ne Scarabei arcu pilari eas occiderent, a quibus magnam pilarum vim in sterquilinio summo labore fabricatam audierant. Tunc passer: "Nolite (inquit) expavescere. Quo modo enim pilas in nos per aera volantes iacere poterunt, cum eas per terram magno molimine vix trahant?" Haec fabula nos admonet ne hostium opes extimescamus, quibus deesse videmus ingenium.

Here is a segmented version to help you see the grammatical patterns:

aves incesserat,

ne Scarabei

arcu pilari eas occiderent,

a quibus

magnam pilarum vim

in sterquilinio

summo labore fabricatam

audierant.

Tunc passer:

"Nolite (inquit) expavescere.

Quo modo enim

pilas

in nos

per aera volantes

iacere poterunt,

cum eas

per terram

magno molimine vix trahant?"

Haec fabula nos admonet

ne hostium opes extimescamus,

quibus deesse videmus ingenium.

Translation: A great fear fell upon the birds, thinking that the beetles were going to kill them with their ball thrower. They heard that the beetles were making a great force of balls in the dung hill, working very hard at it. Then the sparrow said, "Don't be afraid. How can the beetles hurl balls at us, flying through the air, when they are barely able using all their strength to drag them across the ground?" This fable warns us not to fear our enemies resources when we see that they are lacking the capacity to use them.

[This translation is meant as a help in understanding the story, not as a "crib" for the Latin. I have not hesitated to change the syntax to make it flow more smoothly in English, altering the verb tense consistently to narrative past tense, etc.]

Sir Roger L'Estrange

Sir Roger L'Estrange included the fables of Abstemius in his amazing 17th-century edition of Aesop's fables. Here is L'Estrange's translation:

The Birds were in a terrible Fright once, for fear of Gun-shot from the Beetles. And what was the Bus'ness, but the little Balls of Ordure, that the Beetles had rak'd together, the Birds took for Bullets: But a Sparrow in the Company, that had more Wit than his Fellows, bad them have a good Heart yet, for how shall they reach us in the Air, says he, with those Pellets that they can hardly roll upon the Ground? Many People apprehend Danger where there's None, and reckon themselves sure where there is, for want of taking the true Measure of Things, and laying Matters rightly together.

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