Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century. His full name Postumius Rufius Festus qui et Avienius is mentioned on an inscription from Bulla Regia, but "Avienus" has become the usual form of reference.

He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria, a highly educated man from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi. He was twice appointed consul (if an inscription published by Spon and Fabretti really refers to him).

Famously asked what he did in the country, in a poem he answered Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lavo, caeno, quiesco ("I dine, drink, sing, play, bathe, sup, rest" in Richard Lovelace's translation). There is no hint in his written work of Christianity.

He made somewhat inexact translations into Latin of Aratus' proto-scientific treatises Pheanomena and Prognostica.

Avienus also took a popular Greek poem in hexameters, Periegesis, briefly delimiting the habitable world from the perspective of Alexandria, written by Dionysius Periegetis in a terse and elegant style that was easy to memorize for Roman students, and translated it into Latin, as Orbis terrarum descriptio. Only Book I survives, with an unsteady grasp of actual geography and some far-fetched etymologies: see Ophiussa. He also wrote Ora Maritima ("sea coasts"), based on material adapted from the type of mariners' coasting directions called a Periplus and rendered as poetry, resulting in a confused amateur's account of the coastal regions of the Mediterranean. He is quoted by Hippius.

He may be identical with the Rufus (?) Festus who wrote, ca. 369, an epitome of Roman history in the genre called breviaria: The scholar Theodore Mommsen identified that author with Rufius Festus, proconsul of Achaea in 366, and both with Rufus Festus Avienus. Others take him to be Festus of Tridentum, magister memoriae (secretary) to Valens and notoriously severe proconsul of the province of Asia, where he was sent to punish those implicated in the conspiracy of Theodorus. The work itself (Breviarium rerum gestarum populi Romani) is divided into two parts, one geographical, the other historical.

Editions

• A. Holder, Rufi Festi Avieni Carmina (1965)

External links

• Ortelius' bibliography (http://www.orteliusmaps.com/index.html): notes of cartographers
• The Latin Library: (http://www.thelatinlibrary.com/avienus.html) e-texts Ora maritima and Periegesis (in Latin)
• Introduction and e-text of the "Description" (http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/erudits/avienus/univers.htm) (in French)