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Ora maritima ('The Sea Coast') is a poem written by Avienius. It has been claimed to contain borrowings from the Massaliote Periplus (perhaps dating to the 6th century BC).Donnchadh Ó Corráin Chapter 1 "Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland", in The Oxford Illustrated History of Ireland, R.L. Foster, ed. (Oxford University Press) 2000 "Avienus, Rufus Festus" The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology, Timothy Darvil, ed.. (Oxford University Press) 2002 This poeticised periplus resulted in an Anachronism, non-factual account of the coastal regions of the known world. His editor André Berthelot demonstrated that Avienius' land-measurements were derived from Itinerarium but inverted some sequences. Berthelot remarked of some names on the Hispania coast: "The omission of Emporium, contrasting strangely with the names of Tarragona and Barcelona, may characterize the method of Avienius, who searches archaic documents and mingles his searches of them with his impressions as an official of the fourth century A.D." Ora maritima was a work for the reader rather than the traveller, where the fourth century present intrudes largely in the mention of cities at the time abandoned, like the legendary Ophiussa.F.J. Gonzalez Ponce, Avieno y el Periplo (Ejica 1995) compares Avienus' literary archaising to Claudian, whose enumeration of German tribes loyal to Stilicho included many purely literary references of tribes that had long ceased to exist. More recent scholars have emended the too credulous reliance on Avienius' accuracy of his editor, the historian-archaeologist Adolf Schulten.Schulten, Avienus, (Barcelona/Berlin) 1922. Another ancient chief text cited by Avienius is the Periplus of Himilco, the description of a Punic expedition through the Atlantic coasts of Europe which took place at the same time of the circumnavigation of Africa by Hanno (c. 500 BC). ...sicut ad extera Europae noscenda missus eodem tempore Himilco. Toer, H. F. (2008). A History of Ancient Geography. Read Books, p. 109.
Ora maritima includes reference to the islands of Ierne and Albion, Ireland and Great Britain, whose inhabitants reputedly traded with the Oestrymnides of Brittany. The work was dedicated to Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus. It also mentions the presumably mythical city of Cypsela in the coast.Verse
The whole text derives from a single manuscript source, used for the editio princeps published at Venice editio princeps.Avienus, Rufius Festus and Murphy, J. P. (1977) Ora maritima: or, description of the seacoast from Brittany round to Massilia. Ares Publishers, p. 100.
Content
Berthelot (1934) gives the following outline of the poem:
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