RUFIUS

FESTUS

See also:

• RUFIUS FESTUS AVIENUS

AVIENUS  , a Roman aristocrat and poet, of Vulsinii in Etruria, who flourished during the second half of the 4th century A.D . He was probably proconsul of Africa (366) and of Achaia (372) . Avienus was a pagan and a staunch supporter of the old religion . He translated the cl)acv6peea of Aratus and paraphrased the Hepcir' is of Dionysius under the title of Descriptio Orbis Terrarum, both in hexameters . He also compiled a description, in iambic trimeters, of the coasts of the Mediterranean, Caspian and Black Seas in several books, of which only a fragment of the first is extant . He also epitomized Livy and Virgil's Aeneid in the same metre, but these works are lost . Some minor poems are found under his name in anthologies, e.g. a humorous request to one Favianus for some pomegranates for medicinal purposes .