98 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



cal notices concerning several centenarians of their country, and men- 

 tion philosophers, moralists, poets, and artisans who reached and even 

 passed one hundred years, among them the following : Solon, Thales, 

 Pittacus, Epimedes, four of the seven wise men of Greece, lived more 

 than a hundred years according to Lucian, who fixed the date of their 

 death at about b. c. 600. Epimenides, poet and historian, according to 

 Pliny, died at one hundred and fifty-four ; Aristarchus, the tragic 

 poet of Tegea in Arcadia, at one hundred years, about b. c. 460 (Lu- 

 cian). The comic poet, Cratinus, of Athens, died at ninety-nine, b. c. 

 405. According to Valerius Maximus, Sophocles wrote his " CEdipus 

 Tyrannus " when nearly a hundred years old, b. c. 405. The satirical 

 poet Democritus died at one hundred and nine, b. c. 361 ; Gorgias, of 

 Leontes, at one hundred and eight, b. o. 400. The great orator Isoc- 

 rates perished from hunger at ninety-nine years, b. c. 338. Hippoc- 

 rates, the father of medicine, died at the same age, b. c. 361. The 

 philosopher Theophrastus died at one hundred and seven, about b. c. 

 254. Cleanthes, of Epirus, the celebrated disciple of Zeno, died nearly 

 one hundred years old, b. c. 240. The historian, Hieronymus, of 

 Rhodes, died at one hundred and four, b. c. 254. The immortal 

 Galen died, like his great predecessor Hippocrates, almost a centena- 

 rian, b. c. 193. The philosopher Demonax, of Crete, perished from 

 hunger at one hundred years, in the reign of Hadrian. 



The Romans also had their centenarians, but the dates of their 

 deaths are often not given. Juvenal was a hundred years old when he 

 died, b. c. 120. Terentius Varro died at ninety-eight, b. c. 28. Quin- 

 tus Fabius Maximus, augur for sixty-two years, died a centenarian, 

 b. c. 107. Perennius Tutus died at Cornelia, at one hundred and eleven, 

 a. d. 117. 



Women also reached a very advanced age. It is notorious, for 

 example, that Terentia, the divorced wife of Cicero, died at between 

 one hundred and three and one hundred and twelve, after having been 

 remarried three times, about b. c. 02. The poet Martial gives an epi- 

 taph in verse of a woman who died in his time at the fabulous age of 

 two hundred years. Tbe juggler Galeria practiced at her profession 

 till she was a hundred years old, and died at one hundred and four, 

 a. d. 9. According to Pliny, the comedian Luccia also played till the 

 same age as Galeria, and died at one hundred and fifteen. Phlegon, 

 in his book " De Rebus Mirabilibus " and " De Longaevis," mentions 

 the names and places of origin of one hundred and seventeen centena- 

 rians who died at different periods of the Roman Empire. On the 

 taking of the census under Vespasian, a. d. 74, fifty-four of the in- 

 habitants of the eighth administrative circumscription declared them- 

 selves to be one hundred years old, one hundred and fourteen between 

 one hundred and one hundred and ten, two between one hundred 

 and ten and one hundred and twenty-five, four between one hundred 

 and twenty-five and one hundred and thirty, four between one hundred 



