A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

Smith, William

A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. William Smith, LLD, ed. 1890

(Βάβριος), or BA'BRIAS (Βαβρίας), sometimes also called GA'BRIAS (Γαβρίας), who is not a different person from Babrius, as Bentley supposed, a Greek poet, who after the example of Socrates turned the Aesopean fables into verse. The emperor Julian (Ep. 90) is the first writer who mentions Babrius; but as some of Babrius's verses are quoted by Apollonius in his Homeric Lexicon (s. v. ἄειδε), though without mentioning his name, he lived in all probability before the time of Augustus. [APOLLONIUS, No. 5.] This is in accordance with the account of Avianus, who speaks (Praef.) of Babrius before Phaedrus.