344 HISTORY OF 



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dred and fifty, or sixty years. Two Latin kings in Italy, 

 the father and the son, are reported to have lived, the one 

 eight hundred, the other six hundred years ; but this is de 

 livered unto us by certain philologists, who, though other 

 wise credulous enough, yet themselves have suspected the 

 truth of this matter, or rather condemned it. Others record 

 some Arcadian Kings to have lived three hundred years ; 

 the country, no doubt, is a place apt for long life, but the 

 relation I suspect to be fabulous. They tell of one Dando, 

 in lllyrium, that lived without the inconveniences of old age 

 to five hundred years. They tell also of the Epians, a part 

 of ^Etolia, that the whole nation of them were exceeding- 

 long lived, insomuch that many of them were two hundred 

 years old ; and that one principal man amongst them, named 

 Litorius, a man of a giantlike stature, could have told three 

 hundred years. It is recorded, that on the top of the moun 

 tain Timolus, anciently called Tempsis, many of the inha 

 bitants lived to a hundred and fifty years. We read that 

 the sect of the Esseans, amongst the Jews, did usually ex 

 tend their life to a hundred years. Now that sect used a 

 single or abstemious diet, after the rule of Pythagoras. 

 Apollonius Tyaneus exceeded a hundred years, his face be 

 wraying no such age; he was an admirable man, of the 

 heathens reputed to have something divine in him, of the 

 Christians held for a sorcerer; in his diet pythagorical, a 

 great traveller, much renowned, and by some adored as a 

 god ; notwithstanding, towards the end of his life, he was 

 subject to many complaints against him, and reproaches, 

 all which he made shift to escape. But lest his long life 

 should be imputed to his pythagorical diet, and not rather 

 that it was hereditary, his grandfather before him lived a 

 hundred and thirty years. It is undoubted, that Quintus 

 Metellus lived above a hundred years ; and that after several 

 consulships happily administered, in his old age he was 

 made Pontifex Maximus, and exercised those holy duties 

 full two and twenty years; in the performance of which 

 rites his voice never failed, nor his hand trembled. It is 

 most certain, that Appius Csecus was very old, but his years 

 are not extant, the most part whereof he passed after he 

 was blind, yet this misfortune no whit softened him, but 

 that he was able to govern a numerous family, a great 

 retinue and dependance, yea, even the commonwealth it 

 self, with great stoutness. In his extreme old age he was 

 brought in a litter into the senatehouse, and vehemently 

 dissuaded the peace with Pyrrhus ; the beginning of his 



