AVIENUS, RUFIUS FESTUS, 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. He trans lated the Matvoµeva of Aratus and paraphrased the Ileptsyilerts of Dionysius under the title of Descriptio Orbis Terrarum, both in hexameters, and 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, but these works are lost. Some minor poems are found under his name in anthologies. Edition of complete works by N. E. Lemaire (Poetae Latini Minores, vol. v., 1819) ; of Aratea by Breysig (1882). French translation of complete works by Despois and Saviot (Bibliotheque Latine-Francaise, 1826).