Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/452

Rh 434 AVITUS. Strata, under the care of Victor Pisanus, in 4to., and bears the date of 25th October (8 KaL Nov.), 1488. It contains the Descriptio Orbis Terrae^ the Ora Maritima, the Aratea, and the epigram addressed to Flavianus Myrmecim ; besides which we find in the same volume the translation of Aratus by Cicero and Germanicus, and the verses of Q. Serenus Samonicus on the cure of diseases. The most useful edition is to be found in the second part of the fifth volume of the Poetae Latini Minores of Wernsdorf, which, however, does not include the Aratea, Wernsdorf not having lived to complete his work. But this last piece also, which was carefully edited by Buhle and placed at the end of his Aratus, is given in the French reprint of Wernsdorf (1825), which forms a portion of the collection of Latin classics pub- lished at Paris by Lemaire. [W. R.] AVrOLA, the name of a family of the Acilia gens, which is not mentioned till the very end of the republic 1. M'. AciLius AvioLA, consul suffectus in b.c. 33, from the Ist of July, is probably the same Aviola who is said to have come to life again on the funeral pile, when it was supposed that he was dead, but to have been nevertheless burnt to death, because the flames could not be extinguished. (Plin. H. N. vu. 52. s. 53 ; Val. Max. i. 8. § 12.) 2. AciLius Aviola, legate of Gallia Lugdunensis under Tiberius, put down an outbreak of the Ande- cavi and Turonii, in A. D. 21. (Tac. Ann. iii, 41.) 3. M'. AciLius Aviola, consul in the last year of the reign of Claudius, a. d. 54. (Tac. Ann. xii. 64 ; Suet. Claud. 45.) A V IT I A' N US, son of Julius Ausonius and Aemilia Aeonia, was a young man of great pro- mise, wlio was being brought up to follow his fa- ther's profession as a physician, but died at an early age, in the fourth century after Christ. He was a younger brother of the poet Ausonius, who in one of his poems (Parent, xiii.) laments his pre- mature death, and gives the above particulars of his life. [W. A. G.] AVI'TUS, A'LCIMUS ECDrCIUS(orECDI'- DIUS), son of Isicius, archbishop of Vienne, was born about the middle of the 5th century. From his earliest years he is said to have devoted himself to literature, and to have given promise of that eru- dition which subsequently gained for him, among his countrymen at least, the reputation of being the most profound and eloquent scholar of his age. After bestowing an ample inheritance on the poor, he retired into the monastery of St, Peter and St. Paul, close to the walls of his native city, and re- mained in the seclusion of the cloister until the death of his father (in a. d. 490), whom he suc- ceeded in the archiepiscopal dignity. His fame as a pious and charitable priest and a powerful con- troversialist now rose very high. He took part in the celebrated conference at Lyons between the Arians and the Catholic bishops, held in the pre- sence of the Burgundian king, where, as we are told, he silenced the heretics and brought back many waverers to the bosom of the church. Gun- debald himself is said to have yielded to his argu- ments, although from political motives he refused to recant his errors openly; and all agree, that after his death his son Sigismund publicly declared his adherence to the true faith. Avitus, at the request of his royal admirers^ published treatises in confutation of the Nestorians, Eutychians, Sa- AVITUS. bellians, and Pelagians, and was peculiarly success- ful in gaining over a number of Jews who had set- tled in his diocese. By pope Hormisda he was appointed vicar apostolic in Gaul, in the year 517 presided at the council of Epaune (^concilium Epao- nense), died on the 5th of February, 523, was buried in the monastery of St. Peter and St. Paul, where he had passed so many years of his early life, and in the fulness of time received the honours of canonization. The works of Avitus are 1. Sacrorum Poemaium libri quinque, dedicated to his brother, Apollinaris, bishop of Valentia, a renowned worker of miracles. This collection con- sists of five distinct pieces, all in hexameter verse, extending to upwards of 2500 lines, De Initio Muti- diy De Peccato Originali, De Senteniia Dei^ De Di- luvio Mundi, De Transitu Maris Rubri. 2. De consolatoria Castitatis Laude^ in 666 hexa- meters, addressed to his sister Fuscina, a nun. These productions display much imagination and great fluency ; the plan of the different portions is well conceived and skilfully executed, and both in versification and expression they deserve the mode- rate praise of being much better than could have been expected, belonging as they do to what Func- cius has quaintly termed the '• Iners ac decrepita senectus" of the Latin language. Barthius is of opinion that we are prevented from estimating them fairly, in consequence of the numerous depravations and interpolations which he believes them to have suffered from the monks in ages still more barba- rous. Besides his effusions in verse, Avitus is known to have published nine books of epistles, and a great number of homilies ; but of these the following only are extant : 3. Eighty-seven letters to and from various per- sons of distinction in church and state. 4. A homily "i)e Festo Rogationum ei prima ejus Institutione.''^ 5. Eight fragments of homilies. 6. Fragments of opuscula. These remains shew that he was Avell versed in scripture and in theology, and that he possessed some knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, and they contain curious and valuable information on various points of ecclesiastical history, discipline, and doc- trine. The poems were first printed at Strasburg in 1507 from a MS. in the possession of Beroaldus, and are given in the Corpus Poetarum Latinorum of Maittaire and similar compilations. The whole works of Avitus were published col- lectively with notes by Pere Sirmond, at Paris, ] 643, 8vo., in the second volume of his Opuscula of the fathers and other ecclesiastical writers, and also in the works of Sirmond published by Pere la Baume, Paris, 1690, fol,, and reprinted at Venice, 1729, fol. Since that period, a new homily has been discovered, and is included in the fifth vol. of the Themur. Anecdoi. bv Dom. Martenne. [W. R.] AVI'TUS, A'LPHIUS. The Latin poet quoted under this name is believed to have flourished dur- ing the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius. Many suppose him to be the same person with Alfius Flavus — the precocious pupil of Cestius and con- temporary with Seneca, who while yet a boy was so famed for his eloquence, that crowds flocked to listen to his orations (Senec. Conirov. i.l ) — and with Flavius Alfius, referred to by Pliny {H. N. ix. 8), as an authority for a story about dolphins. Hence