132 GREAT MEN OF ANCIENT TIMES. 



years between generations. One Cato had a son after he was 

 eighty years of age. 



Pliny the elder was born in A. D. 23, and Pliny the younger 

 (son of the elder's sister) was born thirty-nine years later. If the 

 sister was younger than her brother she would rank high from 

 her father; if she was older, then Pliny the younger would rank 

 very high from his mother. I may remark here that I have observed 

 that Greek and Roman men were often ten, twenty and even thirty 

 years older than their wives. 



The Grecchi were not the least famous of the old Romans. 

 Sempronius Grecchus had one son born when he was forty-six 

 and another of greater ability when he was fifty-five. 



Marcellus Qaudius was the name of the most illustrious plebeian 

 family of the Claudia Gens. For seven generations the time 

 between generations averaged slightly over forty years, or more 

 than seven years greater than our standard average. 



Seneca was born a few years before the Christian era and com- 

 mitted suicide A. D. 65 at the order of Nero, who feared him. "A 

 few years" probably means less than ten. If it means more, then 

 Nero must have ordered a very old man to commit suicide. The 

 father of Seneca was born 61 B. C., and consequently Seneca must 

 come in sub-class A 2 or sub-class A 8 . 



More illustrations might be given, but these are sufficient to 

 show what it was that produced the great men of Rome, and it is 

 only necessary to consider the marriage customs of the present 

 day to see why Rome does not produce them now. 



