LUCILIUS JUNIOR

This article appears in Volume V17, Page 105 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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LUCILIUS JUNIOR , a friend and correspondent of the younger

Seneca

SENECA

, probably the author of Aetna, a poem on the origin of volcanic activity, variously attributed to Virgil, Cornelius Severus (epic poet of the Augustan age) and Manilius. Its composition has been placed as far back as 44 B.C., on the ground that certain works of art, known to have been removed to Rome about that date, are referred to as being at a distance from the city. But as the author appears to have known and made use of the Quaesiiones Naturales of

Seneca

SENECA

(written A.D. 65), and no mention is made of the

great

GREAT

eruption of

Vesuvius

VESUVIUS (also Vesevus in ancient poets)

(A.D. 79), the time of its composition seems to lie between these two

dates

DATES

. In favour of the authorship of

Lucilius

LUCILIUS, GAIUS (c. 18o–ro3 B.C.)

are the facts that he was a friend of Seneca and acquainted with his writings; that he had for some time held the office of imperial procurator of Sicily, and was thus familiar with the locality; that he was the author of a poem on Sicilian subjects. It is objected that in the 79th

letter

LETTER (through Fr. lettre from Lat. littera or litera, letter of the alphabet; the origin of the Latin word is obscure; it has probably no connexion with the root of linere, to smear, i.e. with wax, for an inscription with a stilus)

of Seneca, which is the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

authority on the question, he apparently asks that

Lucilius

LUCILIUS, GAIUS (c. 18o–ro3 B.C.)

should introduce the hackneyed theme of Aetna merely as an episode in his contemplated poem, not make it the subject of

separate

SEPARATE

treatment. The sources of the Aetna are Posidonius of Apamea, and perhaps the pseudo-Aristotelian De Mundo, while there are many reminiscences of Lucretius. It has come down in a very corrupt state, and its difficulties are increased by the unpoetical nature of the subject, the straining after conciseness, and the obtrusive use of metaphor.
Editions by J. Scaliger (1595), F. Jacob (1826), H. A. J. Munro (1867), M. Haupt (in his edition of Virgil, 1873), E. Bahrens (in Poetae latini minores, u.), S. Sudhaus (1898), R. Ellis (1901, containing a bibliography of the subject); see also M. Haupt's Opuscula, i. 4o, ii. 27, 162, iii. 437 (notes, chiefly

critical

CRITICAL (in alphabetical order of authors)

); R. Ellis in Journal of Philology, xvi. 292; P. R. Wagler, De Aetna poemate quaestiones criticae (1884); B. Kruczkiewicz, Poema de Aetna Monte (1883, in which the ancient view of the authorship of Virgil is upheld); L. Al-zinger, Stadia in Aetnam collata (1896); R. Hildebrandt, Beitrdge zur Erkldrung des Gedichtes Aetna (1900); J. Vessereau (text,

translation

TRANSLATION

and commentary, 19o5); Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans. 307, 308).

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