Ora Maritima

• The Ora Maritima, meaning ‘Sea Coasts’, is a Poem written by Avienus who lived in the late fourth century CE.
• It is a Periplus, a Sea Pilot Guide of the Atlantic Coasts of the Ancient World, which claimed to quote older works.

The Work

• Pilot guides were written as poems, to make it easier for navigators to memorise their contents.
• Ora Maritima means ‘Sea Coasts’, and claims to quote passages from the following Books:

1. The Massiliote Periplus
   • A 6th century BCE Periplus which described the Tin Sea Route from Cadiz along the coasts of Spain, Brittany, Britain and Ireland.
2. The Periplus of Himilco
   • A fifth century BCE Punic expedition along the Atlantic coasts of Western Europe, Spain, Portugal and France.
   • This Periplus also described a part of the Atlantic as being covered in seaweed, possibly an early description of the Sargasso Sea.
   • It was dedicated to the Consul Sextus Claudius Petronius Probus (358-390 CE), described by Ammianus Marcellinus as a very wealthy and powerful aristocrat. Probus was a patron of the poet Ausonius, and also presumably of Avienus.