Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius[1][2][3] (orAvienus[4]) was aLatin writer of the 4th century AD. He was a native ofVolsinii inEtruria,[5] from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi.[6]
Avienius is not identical with the historianFestus.[7]
Avienius made a free translation into Latin ofAratus' didactic poemPhaenomena. He also took a popular Greek poem inhexameters,Periegesis, briefly delimiting the habitable world from the perspective ofAlexandria, written byDionysius Periegetes in a terse and elegant style that was easy to memorize for students, and translated it into an archaising Latin as hisDescriptio orbis terrae ("Description of the World's Lands"). Only Book I survives, with an unsteady grasp of actual geography and some far-fetched etymologies: seeOphiussa.
A. Berthelot:Ora maritima. Paris 1934. (text of reference)
J. P. Murphy:Ora maritima or Description of the seacoast. (Chicago) 1977.
J. Soubiran:Aviénus: Les Phénomènes d'Aratos. CUF, Paris 1981. (text of reference)
D. Stichtenoth:Ora maritima, lateinisch und deutsch. Darmstadt 1968. (the Latin text is that of theeditio princeps of 1488 and is better not cited)
P. van de Woestijne:Descriptio orbis terrae. Brugge 1961. (text of reference)
Commentaries, monographs and articles
F. Bellandi, E. Berti und M. Ciappi:"Iustissima Virgo": Il mito della Vergine in Germanico e in Avieno (saggio di commento a Germanico Arati Phaen. 96 - 139 e Avieno Arati Phaen. 273 - 352), Pisa 2001
A. Cameron (1995)."Avienus or Avienius?"(PDF).Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik.108:252–262. Retrieved13 December 2006.
Concordantia in Rufium Festum Avienum. Curavit Manfred WACHT. G. Olms Verlag 1995
M. Fiedler:Kommentar zu V. 367-746 von Aviens Neugestaltung der Phainomena Arats. Stuttgart Saur 2004
C. Ihlemann:De Avieni in vertendis Arateis arte et ratione. Diss. Göttingen 1909
H. Kühne:De arte grammatica Rufi Festi Avieni. Essen 1905
K. Smolak:Postumius Rufius Festus Avienus. In:Handbuch der lateinischen Literatur der Antike, hrsg. von R. Herzog und P. L. Schmidt, Fünfter Band. Restauration und Erneuerung. Die lateinische Literatur von 284 bis 374 n. Chr., München 1989, S. 320-327
D. Weber:Aviens Phaenomena, eine Arat-Bearbeitung aus der lateinischen Spätanike. Untersuchungen zu ausgewählten Partien. Dissertationen der Universität Wien 173, Wien 1986
L. WillmsÜbersetzung, philologischer Kommentar und vergleichende Interpretation des Tierkreises in Aviens Phaenomena (Verse 1014 – 1325) AKAN-Einzelschriften – Antike Naturwissenschaften und ihre Rezeption, vol. 8. Trier WVT 2014
P. van de Woestijne:De vroegste uitgaven van Avienus' Descriptio orbis terrae (1488-1515). 1959
H. Zehnacker:D'Aratos à Aviénus: Astronomie et idéologie. Illinois Classical Studies 44 (1989), S. 317-329
^Rita Lizzi Testa,Senatori, popolo, papi: il governo di Roma al tempo dei Valentiniani (Bari, 2004), p. 274
^Shipley, D.; Graham, J. (2024). "Avienus (Avienius), Ora Maritima (The Sea Coast)".Geographers of the Ancient Greek World: Selected Texts in Translation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 889–920.
^Oxford Dictionary of Late Antiquity, "Avienius", p. 187
^Donnchadh Ó Corráin Chapter 1 "Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland", inThe Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland, R.L. Foster, ed. (Oxford University Press) 2000ISBN0-19-289323-8
^"Avienus, Rufus Festus"The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, Timothy Darvil, ed.. (Oxford University Press) 2002
