340 HISTORY OF 



he charged his friends they should give him a plaudit after 

 he was dead), certainly this lady was an excellent actress, 

 who could carry it so well with her husband by a dissem 

 bled obedience, and with her son by power and authority. 

 A woman affable, and yet of a matronal carriage, pragma 

 tical, and upholding her power. But Junia, the wife of 

 Gains Cassius, and sister of Marcus Brutus, was also ninety 

 years old, for she survived the Philippic battle sixty-four 

 years ; a magnanimous woman, in her great wealth happy, 

 in the calamity of her husband, and near kinsfolks, and in 

 a long widowhood unhappy, notwithstanding much ho 

 noured of all. 



15. The year of our Lord seventy-six, falling into the 

 time of Vespasian, is memorable ; in which we shall find, 

 as it were, a calendar of long lived men ; for that year there 

 was a taxing (now a taxing is the most authentical and 

 truest informer touching the ages of men) ; and in that part 

 of Italy, which lieth betwixt the Apennine mountains and 

 the river Po, there were found a hundred and four and 

 twenty persons that either equalled or exceeded a hundred 

 years of age; namely, of a hundred years, just fifty-four 

 persons; of a hundred and ten, fifty-seven persons; of a 

 hundred and five and twenty, two only ; of a hundred and 

 thirty, four men ; of a hundred and five and thirty, or seven 

 and thirty, four more ; of a hundred and forty, three men. 

 Besides these, Parma in particular afforded five, whereof 

 three fulfilled a hundred and twenty years, and two a hun 

 dred and thirty. Brussels afforded one of a hundred and 

 twenty-five years old. Placentia one, aged a hundred thirty 

 and one. Faventia one woman, aged one hundred thirty 

 and two. A certain town, then called Velleiatium, situate 

 in the hills about Placentia, afforded ten, whereof six ful 

 filled a hundred and ten years of age, four a hundred and 

 twenty. Lastly, Rimini, one of a hundred and fifty years, 

 whose name was Marcus Aponius. 



That our catalogue might not be extended too much in 

 length, we have thought fit, as well in those whom we have 

 rehearsed, as in those whom we shall rehearse, to offer none 

 under eighty years of age. Now we have affixed to every 

 one a true and short character or elogy ; but of that sort 

 whereunto, in our judgment, length of life (which is not a 

 little subject to the manners and fortunes of men) hath 

 some relation, and that in a twofold respect ; either that 

 such kind of men are for the most part long lived, or that 

 such men may sometimes be of long life, though otherwise 

 not well disposed for it. 



