HOME | Barlow's Aesop: Previous Page - Next Page 

Barlow 62. DE AGRICOLA ET FILIIS

ONLINE FORUM: At the Aesopus Ning Forum, you can ask questions about this fable. You will also  find links there to additional learning materials to help you in reading the Latin (vocabulary, grammar commentary, simplified version, quizzes, macrons, etc.).

Agricola, Filios suos videns quotidie litigantes, iussit fasciculum virgarum sibi afferri. Quae cum allatae essent, colligavit omnes in unum fasciculum, iussitque singulos Filiorum fasciculum capere et confringere. Illis vero confringere non valentibus, solvens postea fasciculum, tradidit singulas singulis eis frangendas, atque, illis statim facileque frangentibus, dixit, “Ita et vos, Filii mei, si unanimes perstiteritis, invictos vos hostibus praebebitis. Sin minus, ipsa vestra aemulatio opportunam vos praedam inimicis praestabit.”

Translation: A farmer, seeing his sons fighting every day, ordered that a bundle of sticks be brought to him. After the sticks had been brought to him, he tied them all into one bundle and ordered his sons, one by one, to take the bundle and to break it. When they in fact were not able to break it, the father then unbound the bundle and handed the sticks to each son one by one to break them. When they were able to quickly and easily break them, he said, "So you also, my sons, if you will be united in mind, you will present yourselves to your enemies as invincible. Otherwise, your own rivalry will make you into ready spoils for your enemies."

[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.]

Illustration: Here is an illustration from this edition, by the renowned artist Francis Barlow; click on the image for a larger view.