AVIANUS

A Latin writer of fables. We have a collection of forty-two fables in elegiac metre, written by him, it may be conjectured, in the 4th century A.D. The work is dedicated to a certain Theodosius, with compliments on his acquaintance with Latin literature. He is perhaps to be identified with the well-known scholar Theodosius Macrobius. The dedication is in prose, and states that the author's models were Phaedrus and Babrius. The book was largely used in schools, and consequently was much enlarged, paraphrased, and imitated in the Middle Ages. The result may be seen in the Novus Avianus of Alexander Neckam, written in the 13th century.