BOOK VII. XIII. 60-.YV'. 63 



Lucius Sulla was his colleague, on the 9th April a 

 freeman of hunible station at Fiesole named Gaius 

 Crispinius Hilarus went in procession preceded by 

 eight children, including two daughters, twenty- 

 seven grandchildren, eighteen great-grandchildren, 

 and eight granddaughters bv marriage, and with all 

 of tliese in attendance offered saci-ifice on the Capitol. 



XI\'. A woman does not bear children after the age .417^ 0/ 

 of fifty, and with the majority menstruation ceases at -^^" "*'' 

 40. As for the case of men, it is well known that 

 King Masinissa begot a son when over 86, whom he 

 called Methimannus, and Cato the ex-censor had a 

 son by the daughter of his cHent Salonius when he was 

 81 : this is the reason whv this branch of his family 

 l^ears the surname of Salonianus, although that of 

 the other branch is Liciniaiuis ; Cato of Utica be- 

 longed to the Salonian branch. Recently also 

 Lucius Volusius Saturninus, who died while holding 

 the office of City Praefect, is known to have had a 

 son, by CorneUa of the Scipio family, born after 

 he was 62, Volusius Saturninus, who was consul. 

 Parentage even up to the age of 75 is commonly 

 found in the lower classes. 



X\^ Woman is, however, the only animal that has Menttma- 

 monthly periods ; consequently she akjne has what '"^" 

 are called moles in her womb. This mole is a 

 shapeless and inanimate mass of flesh that resists 

 the point and the edge of a knife ; it moves about, 

 and it checks menstruation, as it also checks 

 births : in some cases causing death, in others 

 growing okl with the patient, sometimes when the 

 bowels are violently moved being ejected. A similar 

 object is also formed in the stomach of males, called 

 a tumour, as in the case of the praetorian Oppius 



547 



