AVIENUS

Form: Ruflus Festus.

A Latin poet, native of Volsinii in Etruria, pro-consul of Africa in 366 and of Achaia in 372 A.D. He was the author of a tasteful and scholarly translation, in hexameters, of the Phoenomena of Aratus, and of the Geography of Dionysius Periegetes (Descriptio Orbis Terrarum); as well as of a piece called Ora maritima, or a description of the coasts of the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas. This was based on very ancient authorities, and written in iambics. Only a fragment of the first book remains, describing the Mediterranean coast from the Atlantic as far as Marseilles.