_N.Q._ iii. 26, 6, 'Hoc et a te traditum est ut in poemate, Lucili carissime, et a Vergilio, qui adloquitur Arethusam.' A poem on Aetna is referred to in _Ep._ 79, 5-7, 'Donec pudor obstet, ne Aetnam describas in tuo carmine et hunc sollemnem omnibus poetis locum adtingas; quem quo minus Ovidius tractaret, nihil obstitit, quod iam Vergilius impleverat ... Aut ego te non novi aut Aetna tibi salivam movet: iam cupis grande aliquid et par prioribus scribere.' Some authorities think that Lucilius had meant to incorporate this description in a larger poem, but changed his mind, and wrote a poem on Aetna alone. As regards the date of the poem: (1) It was written at a time when imitation of Ovid was common. Cf. Sen. _N.Q._ iv. 2, 2, 'Quare non cum poeta meo iocor et illi Ovidium suum impingo?' (2) There is no mention of Vesuvius in the list of volcanoes in 1. 425 _sqq._ The poem must therefore have been written before A.D. 79. The following are the arguments for Lucilius having been the author: (1) The poem was written by one who knew Aetna and the vicinity. Now Lucilius was long procurator of Sicily. (2) Military metaphors, as ll. 464-74, would fit in with his having been a soldier. (3) The author speaks as if he knew the neighbourhood of Naples well. (4) However, the argument that the writer shows Epicurean views, and that Lucilius was an Epicurean, has little weight. (_a_) There are Stoical doctrines in the poem. Cf. ll. 33-5, 68-70, on the divinity of the stars; ll. 173-4, which maintain that the world would come back to its former state; ll. 536-9, where Heraclitus' doctrine of fire is recommended. (_b_) The _Epistulae Morales_ only show that Lucilius had a leaning to Epicureanism, not that he was an Epicurean. Cf. _Ep._ 23, 9, 'Vocem tibi Epicuri tui reddere,' and other playful references. (5) The views on natural science given in the poem are sometimes the same as those in Sen. _N.Q._ This would fix the date of the poem between 65 and 79 A.D. Cf. _Aetna_, 123, 'Flumina quin etiam latis currentia rivis occasus habuere suos: aut illa vorago derepta in praeceps fatali condidit ore aut occulta fluunt tectis adoperta cavernis atque inopinatos referunt procul edita cursus'; and Sen. _N.Q._ iii. 26, 3, 'Quaedam flumina palam in aliquem specum decidunt et sic ex oculis auferuntur, quaedam consumuntur paulatim et intercidunt. Eadem ex intervallo revertuntur recipiuntque et nomen et cursum.' Cf. also _Aetna_, 96, 'Defit namque omnis hiatu, secta est omnis humus penitusque cavata latebris exiles suspensa vias agit'; and Sen. _N.Q._ v. 14, 1, 'Non tota solido contextu terra in imum usque fundatur, sed multis partibus cava et caecis suspensa latebris.' So the story of the Catanian brothers (ll. 624-45) is told by Sen. _De Benef._ iii. 37, 2-3. Imitations of Lucretius abound. Cf. ll. 219 _sqq._, 'Nunc quoniam in promptu est operis natura solique, unde ipsi venti, quae res incendia pascit,' etc.