977. Annon et Aves. Annon Carthaginensis prae nimio fastu, noluit intra hominum septa permanere, sed praestantiorem de se famam evulgare statuit quam natura, quam sortitus erat, pateretur. Itaque plurimas aves ad perdiscendas cantiones idoneas coemit, et in tenebris obscuroque aluit, solumque unam cantilenam eas docuit, “ANNON EST DEUS.” Quae cum haec una dumtaxat audita voce, eam complexae essent consuetudinem, aliam alio in diversas plagas dimisit, arbitratus hoc avium carmen de se vulgatum iri. At illae semel alis solutae, libertatemque adeptae, et ad consuetum sibi victum reversae naturalem cantum ediderunt, et avium modulationes recoluerunt, longo vale Annoni doctrinaeque, qua in servitute fuerant imbutae, dicto.
M0977 (not in Perry). Source: Aelian, Historia 14.30. This fable is not in Perry’s catalog; Perry did not use Aelian as a source. There are several famous Carthaginians who bore the name “Hanno,” and it is not certain to which of them Aelian’s story refers. There is a similar story about an otherwise unknown “Psapho of Libya” in Erasmus, Adagia 1.2.100.
