Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Mongrel Dog

The Mongrel Dog. A pack of city dogs were chasing after a mongrel country dog at top speed so long as he kept running away and did not dare to fight back. But when he stopped and turned to face them and he too bared his teeth at them, they all stopped in their tracks too and not a single one of the city dogs dared to approach him. Then an argmy commander who happened to be standing nearby turned and said to his soldiers, "Comrades, this demonstration warns us that we should not run away, when we see that more pressing dangers threaten those who run away than those who fight back."

Canis Villaticus. Canes complures urbani quendam villaticum praecipiti insequebantur cursu, quamdiu ille fugit nec repugnare ausus est. At ubi, ad insequentes conversus, subsistit et dentes ipse quoque ostendere coepit, omnes pariter substiterunt nec aliquis urbanorum illi appropinquare audebat. Tunc imperator exercitus, qui ibi forte aderat, ad suos conversus milites, "Commilitones," inquit, "hoc spectaculum nos admonet ne fugiamus, cum praesentiora fugientibus quam repugnantibus videamus imminere pericula."

Notes. This is Abstemius 32. As usual with Abstemius, it is not found in Perry's inventory. What makes this fable unusual is the army general who comments on the situation, providing a human moral based on the adventure of the dogs.

No comments:

Post a Comment