CHAP. 49. (48.)—THE GREATEST LENGTH OF LIFE.
Not only the differences of climate, but the multitude of instances named, and the peculiar destiny attached to each of us from the moment of his birth,[1261] tend to render one very uncertain in forming any general conclusion respecting the length and duration of human life. Hesiod, who was the first to make mention of this subject, while he states many circumstances about the age of man, which appear to me to be fabulous, gives to the crow nine times the ordinary duration of our life, to the stag four times the length of that of the crow, to the raven three times the length of that of the stag, besides other particulars with reference to the phœnix and the Nymphs of a still more fabulous nature. The poet Anacreon gives[1262] one hundred and fifty years to Arganthonius,[1263] the king of the Tartessii; ten more to Cinaras,[1264] the king of Cyprus, and two hundred to Ægimius.[1265] Theopompus gives one hundred and fifty-three years to Epimenides of Cnossus; according to Hellenicus, some of the nation of the Epii, in Ætolia, have completed their two hundredth year; and his account is confirmed by Damastes, who relates that Pictoreus, one of this nation, who was remarkable for his size and strength, lived even to his three hundredth year. Ephorus says that some kings of Arcadia have lived three hundred years; Alexander Cornelius, that there was one Dandon, in Illyricum, who lived five hundred years. Xenophon, in his Periplus, gives to a king of the island of the Lutmii six hundred years, and, as though in that instance he had lied too sparingly, to his son eight hundred.[1266] All these statements, however, have originated in a want of acquaintance with the accurate measurement of time. For some nations reckon the summer as one year, and the winter as another; others again, consider each of the four seasons a year; the Arcadians, for instance, whose years were of three months each. Others, such as the Egyptians, calculate by the moon, and hence it is that some individuals among them are said to have lived as many as one thousand years.
Let us proceed, however, to what is admitted to be true. It is pretty nearly certain, that Arganthonius of Gades[1267] reigned eighty years, and he is supposed to have commenced his reign when he was forty. Masinissa, beyond a doubt, reigned sixty years,[1268] and Gorgias, the Sicilian, lived one hundred and eight.[1269] Quintus Fabius Maximus was an augur for sixty-three years.[1270] M. Perperna, and more recently, L. Volusius Saturninus, survived all those whose suffrages each had solicited on the occasion of his consulship;[1271] Perperna lived ninety-eight years, and left after him only seven of those whose names, when censor, he had enrolled. Connected with this fact, it also suggests itself, and deserves to be remarked, that it has happened only once, that five successive years have ever passed without the death of a senator taking place; this was the case from the occasion on which the censors Flaccus and Albinus performed the lustration, in the year of the City 579, until the time of the succeeding censors.[1272] M. Valerius Corvinus completed one hundred years, forty-six of which intervened between his first and sixth consulship.[1273] He occupied the curule chair twenty-one times,[1274] a thing that was never the case with any one besides. The pontiff Metellus also attained the same age.[1275]
Among women also, Livia, the wife of Rutilius, exceeded her ninety-sixth year; during the reign of Claudius, Statilia, a member of a noble family, died at the age of ninety-nine; Terentia, the wife of Cicero, lived one hundred and three years, and Clodia, the wife of Ofilius, one hundred and fifteen; she had fifteen children.[1276]
Lucceia, an actress in the mimes, performed on the stage when one hundred years old, and Galeria Copiola returned to the stage, to perform in the interludes,[1277] at the votive games which were celebrated for the health of the deified Augustus, in the consulship of C. Poppæus and Q. Sulpicius.[1278] She had made her first appearance when eight years of age, just ninety-one years before that time, when M. Pomponius was ædile of the people, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo.[1279] When Pompeius Magnus dedicated his great theatre, he brought her upon the stage, as being quite a wonder, considering her old age. Asconius Pedianus informs us, that Sammula also lived one hundred and ten years. I consider it less wonderful that Stephanio, who was the first to dance on the stage in comedy descriptive of Roman manners, should have[1280] danced at the two secular games, those celebrated by the deified Augustus, and by Claudius Cæsar, in his fourth consulship, considering that the interval that elapsed between them was no more than sixty-three years;[1281] indeed, he lived a considerable time after the last period. We are informed by Mutianus, that, on the peak of Mount Tmolus, which is called Tempsis, the people live one hundred and fifty years, and that T. Fullonius, of Bononia, was set down as of the same age, in the registration which took place under the censorship of Claudius Cæsar; and this appeared to be confirmed by comparing the present with former registrations, as well as many other proofs that he had been alive at certain periods—for that prince greatly interested himself in ascertaining the exact truth of the matter.
CHAP. 50. (49.)—THE VARIETY OF DESTINIES AT THE BIRTH OF MAN.
The present conjuncture would appear to demand from me some opinion upon the science of the stars. Epigenes[1282] used to maintain that human life could not be possibly prolonged to one hundred and twelve years, and Berosus[1283] that it could exceed one hundred and seventeen. The system is still in existence which Petosiris and Necepsos[1284] transmitted to us, and called by them “tartemorion,”[1285] from the division of the signs into four portions; from which it would appear, that life, in the region of Italy, may possibly be extended to one hundred and twenty-four years. They maintain that, reckoning from the commencement of an ascending sign, no life can possibly exceed a period of ninety degrees from that point; which periods they call by the name of “anaphoræ;”[1286] they say also, that these anaphoræ may be intercepted by meeting with malign stars or their rays even, or those of the sun.[1287] To theirs the school of Æsculapius succeeded, which admits that the allotted duration of life is regulated by the stars, but that it is quite uncertain what is the greatest extent of the period. These say that long life is uncommon, because a very great number of persons are born at critical moments in the hours of the lunar days; for example, in the seventh and the fifteenth hours, both by day and night; these individuals are subject to the malign influence of that ascending scale of the years which is termed the “climacteric,”[1288] and never hardly, when born under these circumstances, exceed the fifty-fourth year. First of all, however, it must strike us that the variations which have taken place in this science prove its uncertainty; and to this consideration may be added the experience of the very last census, which was made four years ago, under the direction of the Emperors Vespasian, father and son.[1289] I shall not search through the registers;[1290] I shall only cite some instances in the middle district that lies between the Apennines and the river Padus. At Parma, three persons declared themselves to be one hundred and twenty years of age; at Brixellum,[1291] one was one hundred and twenty-five; at Parma, two were one hundred and thirty; at Placentia, one was one hundred and thirty; at Faventia, one woman was one hundred and thirty-two; at Bononia, L. Terentius, the son of Marcus, and at Ariminum, M. Aponius, were one hundred and forty, and Tertulla, one hundred and thirty-seven. In the hills which lie around Placentia is the town of Veleiacium,[1292] in which six persons gave in their ages as one hundred and ten years, and four one hundred and twenty, while one person, M. Mucius, the son of Marcus, surnamed Felix, and of the Galerian tribe,[1293] was aged one hundred and forty. Not, however, to dwell upon what is generally admitted, in the eighth region of Italy, there appeared by the register, to be fifty-four persons of one hundred years of age, fourteen of one hundred and ten, two of one hundred and twenty-five, four of one hundred and thirty, the same number of one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and thirty-seven, and three of one hundred and forty.
Again, we have another illustration of the uncertain tenure of human life. Homer informs us that Hector and Polydamas[1294] were born on the same night,[1295] and yet how different was their fate! M. Cælius Rufus[1296] and C. Licinius Calvus were born on the same day, the fifth before the calends of June, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo; they both of them lived to be orators, it is true, but how different their destiny! The same thing, too, happens every day, and in every part of the world, with respect to men that are born in the self-same hour; masters and slaves, kings and beggars, come into the world at the same moment.
CHAP. 51. (50.)—VARIOUS INSTANCES OF DISEASES.
P. Cornelius Rufus,[1297] who was consul with M. Curio, lost his sight while he was asleep and dreaming that that accident had befallen him. On the other hand, Jason, of Pheræ, when he was labouring under an abscess and had been given up by the physicians, determined to end his life in battle, where he received a wound in the chest, and found, at the hands of the enemy, a remedy for his disease.[1298] Q. Fabius Maximus,[1299] the consul, having engaged in battle with the Allobroges and the Arverni, at the river Isara, on the sixth day before the ides of August, and having slain there one hundred and thirty thousand of the enemy, found himself cured, during the engagement, of a quartan fever.