 Just as living things have a life-cycle that is witnessed in parents and then again in their off-spring, so too the universe has a life cycle that is repeated. This life cycle is guided by, or equivalent to, a developmental plan that is identified with God. There is a cycle of endless recurrence, beginning from a state in which all is fire, through the generation of the elements, to the creation of the world we are familiar with, and eventually back to the state of pure designing fire called ‘the conflagration’ (Nemesius, 52C). This idea of world-cycles punctuated by conflagrations raised a number of questions. Will there be another you reading this encyclopedia entry in the next world cycle? Or merely someone exactly similar to you? Different sources attribute different answers to the Stoics on these questions. (For sameness of person, see Alexander (52F). For someone indistinguishable, but not not identical, see Origen (52G).) The doctrine of eternal recurrence also raises interesting questions about the Stoic view of time. Did they suppose that the moment in the next world cycle at which you (or someone indistinguishable from you) reads this entry is a moment in the future (so time is linear) or the very same moment (with some notion of circular time)? The Stoic definition of time as the ‘dimension (diastêma) of motion’ or ‘of the world’s motion’ (Simplicius, 51A) hardly seems to settle the question. For a clear exchange on the issue, see Long (1985) and Hudson (1990).