Fables are beautiful because they express lifelong, time-honored wisdom in a manner so concise and clear that anyone can understand their message. The most famous collection of these pedagogical fantasies is Aesop’s Fables, which includes notable stories such as The Tortoise and The Hare. However, in the first century AD, the Roman fabulist Phaedrus himself compiled several books of fables, some of which he translated from Aesop’s Fables, others the product of his own mind.