the author of a collection of forty-two Aesopic fables in Latin elegiac verse, dedicated to
a certain Theodosius, who is addressed as a man of great learning and highly cultivated
mind.
Confusion with the geographical poet named Avianus
The designation of this writer appears under a number of different shapes in different
MSS., such as Avianus, Anianus, Abidnus, Abienus, and Avienus, from which last form he was by many of the earlier historians of Roman
literature, such as Vossius and Funceius, identified with the geographical poet, Rufus Festus
Avienus. [AVIENUS.] But, independent of the circumstance that no
fact except this resemblance of name can be adduced in support of such an opinion, the
argument derived from the style of these compositions must, to every reader of taste and
discrimination. appear conclusive. Nothing can be imagined more unlike the vigorous, bold,
spirited, and highly embellished rotundity which characterizes the
Descriptio
Orbis and the Aratea than the feeble, hesitating, dull meagreness of
the fabulist. Making all allowances for numerous corruptions in the text, we can scarcely
regard these pieces in any other light than as the early effusions of some unpractised youth,
who patched very unskilfully expressions borrowed from the purer classics, especially Virgil,
upon the rude dialect of an unlettered age.
Date
Cannegieter, in his erudite but most tedious dissertation, has toiled unsuccessfully to
prove that Avianus flourished under the Antonines. Wernsdorf, again, places him towards the
end of the fourth century, adopting the views of those who believe that the Theodosius of the
dedication may be Aurelius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, the grammarian, and adding the
conjecture, that the Flavianus of the Saturnalia may have been corrupted by transcribers into
Fl. Avianus. These are mere guesses, and may be taken for what they are worth. Judging from
the language, and we have nothing else whatever to guide us, we should feel inclined to place
him a hundred years later.
Editions
Avianus was first printed independently by Jac. de Breda, at Deventer in Holland, in
the year 1494, 4to., Gothic characters, under the title Apologus Aviani
civis Romani adolescentulis ad mores et Latinum sermonem capessendos utilissimus;
but the editio princeps is appended to the fables of Aesop which appeared about 1480.The earlier editions contain only twenty-seven fables ; the whole forty-two were first
published by Rigaltius, along with Aesop and other opuscula (16mo. Lugd. 1570). The
most complete edition is that of Cannegieter, 8vo. Amstel. 1731, which was
followed by those of Nodell, 8vo. Amstel. 1787, and of C. H. Tzschucke,
12mo. Lips. 1790.
The fables of Avian translated into Englyshe are to be found at the
end of The Subtyl Historyes and Fables of Esope, translated out of Frenshe into
Englysshe, by William Caxton at Westmynstre. In the yere of our lorde M CCCC lxxxiii.,
&c. Enprynted by the same the xxvj daye of Marche the yere of our lord M CCCC lxxxiij,
And the fyrst yere of the regne of kyng Rychard the thyrde, folio.This book was reprinted by Pynson.We have a translation into Italian by Giov. Gris. Trombelli, 8vo. Venez. 1735;
and into German by H. Fr. Kerler, in his Röm.
Fabeldichter, Stuttgard, 1838.
Bibliography
Vossius, de Poetis Latt. p. 56; Funceius, de Vegeta L. L. Senecutule, cap. 3. § lvi.; Barth. Adversar. 19.24, 27.3, 39.7 and 13, 46.4, 7, 16; Wernsdorf, Poett. Latt. Minn. vol. v. pars. ii. p. 663, who effectually
destroys the leading argument of Cannegieter that Avianus must be intermediate between
Phaedrus and Titianus, upon which idea the hypothesis that he lived under the Antonines
rests.)