150 PLINY'S NATTJEAL HISTORY. [Book VII. 



third day before the ides of April, 79 C. Crispinus Hilarus, a 

 man of a respectable family of the plebeian order, living at 

 Faesulae, 80 came to the Capitol, to offer sacrifice, attended by 

 eight children (of whom two were daughters), twenty-eight 

 grandsons, nineteen great-grandsons, and eight granddaughters, 

 who all followed him in a lengthened train. 



CHAP. 12. (14.) AT WHAT AGE GENEEATION CEASES. 



Women cease to bear children at their fiftieth year, and, 

 with the greater part of them, the monthly discharge ceases at 

 the age of forty. Eut with respect to the male sex, it is a 

 well-known fact, that King Masinissa, when he was past his 

 eighty-sixth year, had a son born to him, whom he named 

 Metimanus, 81 and that Cato the Censor, after he had completed 

 his eightieth year, had a son by the daughter of his client, 

 Salonius : a circumstance from which, while the descendants 

 of his other sons were surnamed Liciniani, those of this son 

 were called Saloniani, of whom Cato of Utica was one. 82 It is 

 equally well known, too, that L. Volusius Saturninus, 83 who 

 lately died while prefect of the city, had a son when he was 

 past his seventy- second year, 84 by Cornelia, a member of the 

 lamily of the Scipios, Yolusius Saturninus, who was afterwards 

 consul. Among the lower classes of the people, we not un- 

 commonly meet with men who become the fathers of children 

 after the age of seventy-five. 



CHAP. 13. (15.) EEMAEKABLE CIECTJMSTANCES CONNECTED WITH 



THE MENSTEUAL DISCHAEGE. 



Among the whole range of animated beings, the human fe- 



79 llth of April. 80 See B. in. c. 8. 



81 This fact is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13. There 

 is some variation in the spelling of the name of the son of Masinissa ; 

 Solinus calls him Mathumannus. B. 



82 Hardouin gives a detailed account of the children of Cato, by which 

 it appears that the Liciiiian branch descended from the issue by his wife 

 Licinia, and the Saloniani, of whom Cato of Utica was one, from his son 

 Salonianus, by his second wife, Salonia. B 



83 Volusius Saturninus is again mentioned in the 49th Chapter, as a re- 

 markable instance of longevity ; also by Tacitus, B. xiii. c. 30. B 



!4 This reading seems preferable to sixty-second, adopted by Sillig ; as 

 there would be nothing very remarkable in a man becoming a father when 

 sixty-two years of age. 



