At the behest of a dream, illustrious Quintillus, I make you a present of the “Octogenarians.” I had the dream and told my friends of it long since, when you were christening your second child. At the time, however, not being able to understand what the god meant by commanding me to “present you the octogenarians,” I merely offered a prayer that you and your children might live very long, thinking that this would benefit not only the whole human race but, more than anyone else, me in person and all my kin; for I too, it seemed, had a blessing predicted for me by the god.
But as I thought the
matter over by myself, I hit upon the idea that very
likely in giving such an order to a literary man, the
gods were commanding him to present you something from his profession. Therefore, on this your
birthday, which I thought the most auspicious
occasion, I give you the men who are related to have
attained great age with a sound mind and a perfect
body. Some profit may accrue to you from the
treatise in two ways : on the one hand, encouragement
and good hopes of being able to live long yourself,
and on the other hand, instruction by examples, if
you observe that it is the men who have paid most
Nestor, you know,
the wisest of the Achaeans, outlasted three genera-
tions, Homer says:
Moreover, it is related that, owing to their diet, whole castes of men live long like the so-called scribes in Egypt, the story-tellers in Syria and Arabia, and the so-called Brahmins in India, men scrupulously attentive to philosophy. Also the so-called Magi, a prophetic caste consecrated to the gods, dwelling among the Persians, the Parthians, the Bactrians, the Chorasmians, the Arians, the Sacae, the Medes and many other barbarian peoples, are strong and long-lived, on account of practising magic, for they diet very scrupulously.
Indeed, there are even whole nations that
are very long-lived, like the Seres, who are said to live
three hundred years: some attribute their old age to
the climate, others to the soil and still others to their
diet, for they say that this entire nation drinks
nothing but water. The people of Athos are also
said to live a hundred and thirty years, and it is
reported that the Chaldeans live more than a
hundred, using barley bread to preserve the sharpness of their eyesight. They say, too, that on
account of this diet their other faculties are more
vigorous than those of the rest of mankind.
But this must suffice in regard to the long-lived castes and nations who are said to exist for a very long period either on account of their soil and climate, or of their diet, or of both. I can fittingly show you that your good hopes are of easy attainment by recounting that on every soil and in every clime men who observe the proper exercise and the diet most suitable for health have been long-lived.
I shall
base the principal division of my treatise on their
pursuits, and shall first tell you of the kings and the
generals, one of whom the gracious dispensation of a
great and godlike emperor has brought to the
highest rank, thereby conferring a mighty boon upon
the emperor’s world.
Numa Pompilius, most fortunate of the kings
of Rome and most devoted to the worship of the
gods, is said to have lived more than eighty years.
Servius Tullius, also a king of Rome, is likewise related
to have lived more than eighty years. Tarquinius,
the last king of Rome, who was driven into exile
These are the kings of Rome, to whom I shall join such other kings as have attained great age, and after them others arranged according to their various walks of life. In conclusion I shall record for you the other Romans . who have attained the greatest age, adding also those who have lived longest in the rest of Italy. The list will be a competent refutation of those who attempt to malign our climate here; and so we may have better hopes for the fulfilment of our prayers that the lord of every land and sea may reach a great and peaceful age, sufficing unto the demands of his world even in advanced years.
Arganthonius, king of the Tartessians, lived a
hundred and fifty years according to Herodotus the
historian and Anacreon the song-writer,
Antigonus One-eye, son of Philip, and king of Macedonia, died in Phrygia in battle against Seleucus and Lysimachus, with many wounds, at eighty-one: so we are told by Hieronymus, who made the campaign with him. Lysimachus, king of Macedonia, also lost his life in the battle with Seleucus in his eightieth year, as the same Hieronymus says. There was also an Antigonus who was son of Demetrius and grandson of Antigonus One-eye: he was king of Macedonia for forty-four years and lived eighty, as Medeius and other writers say. So too Antipater, son of Iolaus, who had great power and was regent for many kings of Macedonia, was over eighty when he died.
Ptolemy, son of Lagus, the most fortunate of the
kings of his day, ruled over Egypt, and at the age
of eighty-four, two years before his death, abdicated
in favour of his son Ptolemy, called Philadelphus,
who succeeded to his father’s throne in lieu of his
elder brothers.1
Philetaerus, an eunuch, secured and
kept the throne of Pergamus, and closed his life at
Mithridates, king of Pontus, called the Founder, exiled by Antigonus One-eye, died in Pontus at eighty-four, as Hieronymus and other writers say. Ariarathes, king of Cappadocia, lived eighty-two years, as Hieronymus says: perhaps he would have lived longer if he had not been captured in the battle with Perdiccas and crucified.
Cyrus, king ot the Persians in olden times, according to the Persian and Assyrian annals (with which Onesicritus, who wrote a history of Alexander, seems to agree) at the age of a hundred asked for all his friends by name and learned that most of them had been put to death by his son Cambyses. When Cambyses asserted that he had done this by order of Cyrus, he died of a broken heart, partly because he had been slandered for his son’s cruelty, partly because he accused himself of being feeble-minded.
Artaxerxes, called the Unforgetting, against whom Cyrus, his brother, made the
expedition, was king of Persia when he died of illness
at the age of eighty-six (according to Dinon ninetyfour). Another Artaxerxes, king of Persia, who,
Isidore the Characene historian says, occupied the
throne in the time of Isidore’s fathers, was assassinated at the age of ninety-three through the
machinations of his brother Gosithras. Sinatroces,
Tiraeus, the second: successor of Hyspausines on the throne, died of * illness at the age of ninety-two. Artabazus, the sixth successor of Tiraeus on the throne of Charax, was reinstated by the Parthians and became king at the age of eighty-six. Cammascires, king of the Parthians, lived ninety-six years.
Massinissa, king of the Moors, lived ninety years. Asandrus, who, after being ethnarch, was proclaimed king of Bosporus by the divine Augustus, at about ninety years proved himself a match for anyone in fighting from horseback or on foot ; but when he saw his subjects going over to Scribonius on the eve of battle, he* starved himself to death at the age of ninety-three. According to Isidore the Characene, Goaesus, who was king of spice-bearing Omania in Isidore’s time, died of illness at one hundred and fifteen years.
These are the kings who have been recorded as
long-lived by our predecessors. Since philosophers
and literary men in general, doubtless because they too
take good care of themselves, have attained old age,
They say
that when Zeno stumbled in entering the assembly,
he cried out: “Why do you call me?”
Xenophanes, son of Dexinus and disciple
of Archelaus the physicist, lived ninety-one years;
Xenocrates, the disciple of Plato, eighty-four ;
Carneades, the head of the New Academy, eightyfive ; Chrysippus, eighty-one; Diogenes of Seleucia
on the Tigris, a Stoic philosopher, eighty-eight ;
Posidonius of Apameia in Syria, naturalised in Rhodes,