Latin Texts & Translations

The present conjuncture would appear to demand from me

some opinion upon the science of the stars. Epigenes ^[Note] used to maintain that human life could not be possibly prolonged to one hundred and twelve years, and Berosus ^[Note] that it could exceed one hundred and seventeen. The system is still in existence which Petosiris and Necepsos ^[Note] transmitted to us, and called by them "tartemorion," ^[Note] 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;" ^[Note] they say also, that these anaphoræ may be intercepted by meeting with malign stars or their rays even, or those of the sun. ^[Note] 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," ^[Note] 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. ^[Note] I shall not search through the registers; ^[Note] 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, ^[Note] 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, ^[Note] 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, ^[Note] 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 ^[Note] were born on the same night, ^[Note] and yet how different was their fate! M. Cælius Rufus ^[Note] 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.