Chap. 49.] THE GREATEST LENGTH OF LIFE. 201 



hundred to ^Egimius. 43 Theopompus gives one hundred and 

 fifty- three years to Epimenides of Cnossus ; according to Hel- 

 lenicus, some of the nation of the Epii, in ^Etolia, have com- 

 pleted their two hundredth year ; and his account is confirmed 

 by Damastes, who relates that Pictoreus, one of this nation, 

 who was remarkable for his size and strength, lived even to his 

 three hundredth year. Ephorus says that some kings of Ar- 

 cadia have lived three hundred years ; Alexander Cornelius, that 

 there was one Dandon, in Illyricum, who lived five hundred years. 

 Xenophon, in his Periplus, gives to a king of the island of 

 the Lutmii six hundred years, and, as though in that instance 

 he had lied too sparingly, to his son eight hundred. 44 All these 

 statements, however, have originated in a want of acquaint- 

 ance with the accurate measurement of time. For some nations 

 reckon the summer as one year, and the winter as another ; 

 others again, consider each of the four seasons a year; the 

 Arcadians, for instance, whose years were of three months each. 

 Others, such as the Egyptians, calculate by the moon, and 

 hence it is that some individuals among them are said to have 

 lived as many as one thousand years. 



Let us proceed, however, to what is admitted to be true. 

 It is pretty nearly certain, that Arganthonius of Gades 45 reigned 

 eighty years, and he is supposed to have commenced his reign 

 when he was forty. Masinissa, beyond a doubt, reigned 

 sixty years, 46 and Gorgias, the Sicilian, lived one hundred and 



unwittingly the father of Adonis, by his own daughter Myrrha (or Smyr- 

 na), in consequence of the anger of Venus or Aphrodite.' He was said 

 to have founded the city of Cinyra in Cyprus. 



43 Callimachus mentions a person of this name, who wrote a treatise on 

 the art of making cheesecakes. There was also a physician so called, who 

 flourished in the fifth century B.C., and who is said by Galen to have been 

 the first who wrote a treatise on the probe. Whether either of these in- 

 dividuals is the person here alluded to, is unknown. 



44 We have the same statement as to the age of Epimenides, in Valerius 

 Maximus, B. viii. s. 13 ; he also, in the same section, gives an account of 

 the Epii, of Pictoreus, of Dandon, and of the king of the island of the 

 Tyrians, all of which agree with the present statement, except that the 

 person mentioned by Damastes is called Literius, and the last-named indi- 

 vidual is styled the king of the island of the Lutmii. B. 



45 The king of the Tartessi, mentioned above. B. 



46 Pliny has already spoken of the vigorous old age of Masinissa, in the 

 12th Chapter of the present Book. B. 



