The Latin poet quoted under this name is believed to have flourished during the reigns of
Augustus and Tiberius. Many suppose him to be the same person with Alfius Flavus--the
precocious pupil of Cestius and contemporary with Seneca, who while yet a boy was so famed for
his eloquence, that crowds flocked to listen to his orations (Senec.Controv. i.l )--and with Flavius Alfius, referred to by Pliny (Plin. Nat. 9.8), as an authority for a story about dolphins. Hence
Vossius conjectures, that his designation at full length and properly arranged may have been
Flavus Alfius Avitus. All this is very ingenious and very uncertain. We know from Terentianus
Maurus (1. 2448), that Alphius Avitus composed a work upon Illustrious Men, in iambic
dimeters, extending to several books; and eight lines are cited by Priscian from the second
book, forming a part of the legend of the Faliscan schoolmaster who betrayed his pupils to
Camillus; besides which, three lines more from the first book are contained in some MSS. of
the same grammarian. (Priscian, vol. i. pp. 410, 553, vol. ii. p. 131, ed. Krehl, or pp. 823,
947, 1136, ed. Putsch.) These fragments are given in the
Anthologia Latina of
Burmann, ii. p. 267, and Add. ii. p. 730, or Ep. n. 125, ed. Meyer.
There is also an " Alpheus philologus," from whom Priscian adduces five words (vol. i. p.
370, ed. Kr., or p. 792, ed. Putsch), and an Alfius whose work on the Trojan war is mentioned
by Festus, s. v. Mamertini. (Wernsdorf, Poett. Latt.
Minn. vol. iii. p. xxxi., vol. iv. pars ii. p. 826.)