Aviēnus, Rufus Festus
A Latin poet of the fourth century A.D. He wrote in hexameter verse a translation of the
Phaenomena of
Aratus (q.v.); a
geography based upon Dionysins Periegetes (
Descriptio Orbis Terrarum); and
another geographical piece (
Ora Maritima) in iambics, describing the coasts of
the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian seas. Of the last work only a part of the first book is
extant. He is known to have written also, in iambics, a poetical version of Livy and a
condensed paraphrase of the
Aeneid of Vergil, of which poet he is, in style, an
imitator. The
editio princeps of the complete works was published in
Venice
(1488). A good edition is Holder's
(Innsbruck, 1887).