Alphius Avitus was a Latin poet believed to have flourished during the reigns of the Roman emperors Augustus

Augustus

Augustus ;23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14) is considered the first emperor of the Roman Empire, which he ruled alone from 27 BC until his death in 14 AD.The dates of his rule are contemporary dates; Augustus lived under two calendars, the Roman Republican until 45 BC, and the Julian...

 and Tiberius

Tiberius

Tiberius , was Roman Emperor from 14 AD to 37 AD. Tiberius was by birth a Claudian, son of Tiberius Claudius Nero and Livia Drusilla. His mother divorced Nero and married Augustus in 39 BC, making him a step-son of Octavian...

, that is, the late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD. Many suppose him to be the same person with Alfius Flavus—the precocious pupil of Lucius Cestius Pius

Lucius Cestius Pius

Lucius Cestius, surnamed Pius, Latin rhetorician, flourished during the reign of Augustus.He was a native of Smyrna, a Greek by birth. According to Jerome, he was teaching Latin at Rome in the year 13 BC...

 and contemporary with Seneca the Elder

Seneca the Elder

Lucius or Marcus Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Elder and Seneca the Rhetorician , was a Roman rhetorician and writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Cordoba, Hispania...

, who while only a boy was so renowned for his eloquence that crowds flocked to listen to his orations—and with a "Flavius Alfius", who is referred to by Pliny the Elder

Pliny the Elder

Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...

 as an authority for a story about dolphins. This has led some scholars to conjecture that this person's full, correct name may have been "Flavus Alfius Avitus". All this is very uncertain. We know from the ancient grammarian Terentianus

Terentianus

Terentianus, surnamed Maurus , Latin grammarian and writer on prosody, flourished probably at the end of the 2nd century....

 that Alphius Avitus composed a work about "Illustrious Men", in iambic dimeters, extending to several books; and eight lines are cited by Priscian

Priscian

Priscianus Caesariensis , commonly known as Priscian, was a Latin grammarian. He wrote the Institutiones grammaticae on the subject...

 from the second book, forming a part of the legend of the Faliscan

Falisci

Falisci is the ancient Roman exonym for an Italic people who lived in what was then Etruria, on the Etruscan side of the Tiber River. The region is now entirely Lazio. They spoke an Italic language, Faliscan, closely akin to Latin. Originally a sovereign state, politically and socially they...

 schoolteacher who betrayed his students to Marcus Furius Camillus

Marcus Furius Camillus

Marcus Furius Camillus was a Roman soldier and statesman of patrician descent. According to Livy and Plutarch, Camillus triumphed four times, was five times dictator, and was honoured with the title of Second Founder of Rome....

; besides which, three lines more from the first book are contained in some manuscripts of the same grammarian. These fragments are given in the Latin Anthology

Latin Anthology

The Latin Anthology is the appellation bestowed upon a collection of fugitive Latin verse, from the age of Ennius to about 1000, formed by Pieter Burmann the Younger...

of Pieter Burman the Younger.

There is also an "Alpheus Philologus," from whom Priscian

Priscian

Priscianus Caesariensis , commonly known as Priscian, was a Latin grammarian. He wrote the Institutiones grammaticae on the subject...

 adduces five words, and an "Alfius" whose work on the Trojan war is mentioned by Festus

Festus (historian)

Festus was a Late Roman historian whose breviary was commissioned by the emperor Valens in preparation for war against Persia....

.