7-443: Ora maritima ("The Sea Coast") is a poem written by Avienius claimed to contain borrowings from the 6th-century BC Massiliote Periplus . This poeticised periplus resulted in an anachronic , non-factual account of the coastal regions of the known world. His editor André Berthelot demonstrated that Avienius' land-measurements were derived from Roman itineraries but inverted some sequences. Berthelot remarked of some names on
14-408: A free translation into Latin of Aratus ' didactic poem Phaenomena . He also took a popular Greek poem in hexameters , Periegesis, briefly delimiting the habitable world from the perspective of Alexandria , written by Dionysius Periegetes in a terse and elegant style that was easy to memorize for students, and translated it into an archaising Latin as his Descriptio orbis terrae ("Description of
21-518: A single manuscript source, used for the editio princeps published at Venice in 1488 . Avienius Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius (sometimes erroneously Avienus ) was a Latin writer of the 4th century AD. He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria , from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi. Avienius is not identical with the historian Festus . Avienius made
28-462: The Hispanic coast "The omission of Emporium , contrasting strangely with the names of Tarragon and Barcelona , may characterize the method of Avienius, who searches archaic documents and mingles his searches of them with his impressions as an official of the fourth century A.D." Ora maritima was a work for the reader rather than the traveller, where the fourth century present intrudes largely in
35-527: The circumnavigation of Africa by Hanno (c. 500 BC). Ora maritima includes reference to the islands of Ierne and Albion , Ireland and Britain , whose inhabitants reputedly traded with the Oestrymnides of Brittany . The work was dedicated to Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus . It also mentions the presumably mythical city of Cypsela in the Catalonian coast. The whole text derives from
42-558: The World's Lands"). Only Book I survives, with an unsteady grasp of actual geography and some far-fetched etymologies: see Ophiussa . He wrote Ora Maritima , a poem claimed to contain borrowings from the 6th-century BC Massiliote Periplus . Avienius also served as governor of Achaia and Africa . According to legend, when asked what he did in the country, he answered Prandeo, poto, cano, ludo, lavo, caeno, quiesco : I dine, drink, sing, play, bathe, sup, rest. However this quote
49-465: The mention of cities at the time abandoned, like the legendary Ophiussa . More recent scholars have emended the too credulous reliance on Avienius' accuracy of his editor, the historian-archaeologist Adolf Schulten . Another ancient chief text cited by Avienius is the Periplus of Himilco , the description of a Punic expedition through the coasts of western Europe which took place at the same time of
#698301