Macrobii

Lucian of Samosata

Lucian, Vol. 1. Harmon, A. M., editor. London: William Heinemann, Ltd.; Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1913.

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,

v.1.p.237

I shall put down those whom there is record of, beginning with the philosophers. Democritus ot Abdera starved himself to death at the age of one hundred and four. ' -Xenophilus the musician, we are told by Aristoxenus, adopted the philosophical system of Pythagoras, and lived in Athens. more than one hundred and five years. Solon, Thales, and Pittacus, who were of the so-called seven wise men, each lived a hundred years, and Zeno, the head of the Stoic school, ninety-eight.