Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Rufus Festus Avienus

AVIENUS, Rufus Festus, a Latin poet, who appears to have flourished in the latter half of the 4th century. Any knowledge we have of the facts of his life is derived from a Latin inscription, printed by Meyer (Anthologia Latina, 278), which has been supposed to refer to him. He is in all probability the Festus who was proconsul in Africa in 366 and following years, and in Achaia in 372. He is the author of thefollowing works: 1. Descriptio Orbis Terræ, sometimes called Metaphrasis Periegeseos Dionysii, being derived from the περιήγησις of that writer; 2. Ora Maritima, of which there is extant only a fragment describing the Atlantic coast, and the Mediterranean as far as Marseilles; 3. Aratea Phœnomena, and Aratea Prognostica, which are paraphrases of two works of Aratus. These poems, with the exception of the Aratea, are contained in Wernsdorf's Poëtœ Latini Minores, vol. v. pt. ii.