Alphius Avitus was a Latin poet believed to have flourished during the reigns of the Roman emperors Augustus and Tiberius, that is, the late 1st century BC or early 1st century AD.
[1] Many suppose him to be the same person with Alfius Flavus—the precocious pupil of Lucius Cestius Pius and contemporary with Seneca the Elder, who while only a boy was so renowned for his eloquence that crowds flocked to listen to his orations[2]—and with a "Flavius Alfius", who is referred to by Pliny the Elder as an authority for a story about dolphins.
[3] This has led some scholars to conjecture that this person's full, correct name may have been "Flavus Alfius Avitus".
We know from the ancient grammarian Terentianus that Alphius Avitus composed a work about "Illustrious Men", in iambic dimeters, extending to several books;[4] and eight lines are cited by Priscian from the second book, forming a part of the legend of the Faliscan schoolteacher who betrayed his students to Marcus Furius Camillus; besides which, three lines more from the first book are contained in some manuscripts of the same grammarian.
[6] There is also an "Alpheus Philologus," from whom Priscian adduces five words,[7] and an "Alfius" whose work on the Trojan War is mentioned by Festus.