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Barlow 3. DE LEONE ET QUATTUOR TAURIS

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Quattuor fuere Tauri qui, inter se invicem societate inita, foedus faciebant communem ipsorum esse salutem et commune periculum. Hoc observavit esuriens et indignabundus Leo, qui quamvis grandi premeretur fame, coniunctos tamen aggredi non ausus est. Hoc ergo consilium cepit: primum verbis fallacibus unum ab altero segregavit, deinde segregatos facile laniavit.

Translation: There were four bulls who entered into a mutual alliance and made a pact that their safety would be a shared concern, and that danger would be shared. A lion, frustrated and hungry, saw what they had done and, although he was afflicted with great hunger, still he did not dare to approach the bulls, united as they were. Therefore he adopted this plan: first, by means of lying words he separated one bull from the other and then, after they were separated, he easily butchered 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.]

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