620 B.C.

620 B.C. is the approximate birth year assigned to Aesop in the book’s account of his life, anchoring a biography whose birthplace and many details remain uncertain.

Date and Degree of Certainty

The account says that scholars generally accept Aesop was born about 620 B.C. It presents the date as approximate rather than exact, distinguishing this broadly accepted point from the uncertainty surrounding other aspects of his origins and life.

Historical Context

Aesop is described as having been born into slavery and later owned by two successive masters on Samos, Xanthus and Jadmon. Jadmon eventually granted him freedom in recognition of his learning and wit. The date therefore places his birth decades before his reported travels to Sardis and his later service at the court of Croesus, king of Lydia.

Place in the Biography

The birth year gives a chronological starting point to a life that the account says is obscured by uncertainty. Sardis, Samos, Mesembria, and Cotiaeum each claimed to be his birthplace, but the book does not resolve the competing claims. The approximate date is thus one of the few biographical details it treats as generally established, rather than as a disputed tradition.