Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

An ancient literary work called The Aesop Romance tells an episodic probably highly fictional version of his life including the traditional description of him as a strikingly ugly slave (δοῦλος) who by his cleverness acquires freedom and becomes an adviser to kings and city-states. A number of later writers from the Roman imperial period (including Phaedrus who adapted the fables into Latin) say that he was born in Phrygia. Life

The earliest Greek sources including Aristotle indicate that Aesop was born around 620 BC in Thrace at a site on the Black Sea coast which would later become the city Mesembria.

Scattered details of Aesop's life can be found in ancient sources including Aristotle Herodotus and Plutarch. Aesop (pronounced /ˈiːsɒp/ EE-sop Greek: Αἴσωπος Aisōpos c.