A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a Latin orator, of whom nothing is known, except that Gellius (15.8) has preserved a fragment of one of his orations in support of a lex Licinia de sumtu minuendo. The question as to who this Favorinus, and what this Licinian law was, deserves some attention. A Roman orator of the name of Favorinus is altogether unknown, and hence critics have proposed to change the name in Gellius into Fannius, Augurinus, or Favonius; but as all the MSS. agree in Favorinus, it would be arbitrary to make any such alteration, and we must acquiesce in what we learn from Gellius. As for the lex Licinia here spoken of, Macrobius (2.13), in enumerating the sumptuary laws, mentions one which was carried by P. Licinius Crassus Dives, and which is, in all probability, the one which was supported by Favorinus. The exact year in which this law was promulgated is uncertain; some assign it to the censorship of Licinius Crassus, B. C. 89, others to his consulship in B. C. 97, and others, again, to his tribuneship, B. C. 110, or his praetorship, B. C. 104. The poet Lucilius is known to have mentioned this law in his Satires; and as that poet died in B. C. 103, it is at any rate clear that the law must have been carried previous to the consulship of Licinins Crassus, i. e. previous to B. C. 97. (H. Meyer, Fragm. Orat. Rom. p. 207, &c., 2d edit.)

[L.S]