He was suffect consul in the nundinium of November to December 56 with Publius Clodius Thrasea Paetus as his colleague.
Prior to becoming consul, Avitus is known to have been governor of the imperial province of Gallia Aquitania, in an unknown year.
Avitus' official response was to command them to submit to Roman rule; unofficially he told their king Boiocalus, an old personal friend, that he was willing to cede to them the lands to live on.
Avitus responded to this threat by writing to Titus Curtilius Mancia, governor of Germania Superior, and asking him to campaign on the further side of the Rhine.
Tacitus relates that "after long wanderings, as destitute outcasts, received now as friends[,] now as foes, their entire youth were slain in a strange land, and who could not fight[,] were apportioned as booty.