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Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius 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.
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Ora maritima 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 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 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 the circumnavigation of Africa by Hanno.
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References
Citations
- ↑ Pliny the Elder, Natural History 2.169a
- ↑ Avienus, Rufius Festus and Murphy, J. P. (1977) Ora maritima: or, description of the seacoast from Brittany round to Massilia. Ares Publisher, ISBN 0-89005-175-5
- ↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2014-02-13. Retrieved 2014-03-13.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ↑ Himilco
- ↑ Avienius, Ora Maritima, lines 112-118
- ↑ Avienius, V. 113-128
- ↑ Roller, Duane W. (2006). Through the pillars of Herakles: Greco-Roman exploration of the Atlantic. Taylor & Francis, pp. 27-28. ISBN 0-415-37287-9
Bibliography
- Cassidy, Vincent H. (1968). The Sea Around Them, The Atlantic Ocean, A.D. 1250. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
- González-Ruibal, Alfredo (2006). "Past the Last Outpost: Punic Merchants in the Atlantic Ocean (5th–1st century BC)". Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology. 19 (1): 121–150. doi:10.1558/jmea.v19i1.121.
- Lendering, Jona (2001). "Himilco". Livius.org, Articles on Ancient History.
