120 HUMAN LONGEVITY. 



his country until he had reached 84 years. Simonides wore 

 his elegiac laurels to the age of 90. 



We wish we could settle a much disputed question, by 

 assigning a period and time of life to that greatest of all 

 the Greek poets, whose name alone lives, but will ever live 

 through every age of the world. Strange it is that the fame 

 of Homer, thus immortal, should be dissociated from any 

 distinct record or time of birth. Still stranger, perhaps, 

 that his individuality should have been called into question 

 by the hard and technical criticism of our own day. 



We might go on to cite numerous instances of eminent 

 longevity from the Koman annals; many of these on the 

 authority of Cicero himself. But we will confine ourselves 

 to a few cases of female longevity, of less historical weight, 

 though curious in other ways. Terentia, the wife of Cicero, 

 lived to 103 ; Clodia, the wife of Ofilius, to 115 years. Two 

 remarkable actresses stand on the list; one of whom, 

 Lucceia, is stated to have performed as Mima for about 100 

 years; the other, Graleria, was brought back to the stage, 

 during games celebrated in honour of Augustus, in her 104th 

 year, and 91 years after her first appearance before the 

 Roman public. Pliny affords us a similar instance from the 

 other sex, that of the dancer Stephanio (qui primus togatas 

 saltare institute), who having danced at the secular games of 

 Augustus, performed again at those of Claudius, 63 years 

 later, and lived still some time afterwards. 



The Census, already mentioned as instituted by Vespasian, 

 furnishes some results as to longevity singular enough to 

 make us more than doubtful of their truth. The instances 

 given by Pliny are taken exclusively from the region between 

 the Apennines and the Po ; and upon the record of this 

 census (which he himself calls res confessa) he enumerates 

 54 persons who had reached the age of 100; 14 of 110 

 years; 2 of 125; 4 of 130; 4 of 135; and 3 of 140 years. 



