Androcles (or Androclus), is a character, who may not have been entirely fictional, in tales that describe him as a slave in the Roman Empire in the early 1st century, about the time of Tiberius but possibly in the reign of Caligula. The locus classicus of the story is found in the fifth book of Aulus Gellius's 2nd century Attic Nights Gellius is relating a story told by Apion in his Aegyptiacorum ("Wonders of Egypt") of which Apion himself claimed to have personally witnessed in Rome. In this version, Androcles, is named in Latin, as Androclus, a runaway slave of a former Roman consul administering a part of Africa. He takes shelter in a cave, which turns out to be the den of an ailing wounded lion. He removes a large thorn from the animal's foot pad, forces pus from the infected wound, and bandages it. As a result, the lion recovers and becomes tame toward him, acting like a domesticated dog, including wagging its tail and bringing home game that it shares with the slave. After sever ...more

Source: Internet, wikkipedia

Androcles (This story was in my 6th standard as "Androcles and the lion"which I have read & answered qsns in my half yearly and annual exams)