150 PLim's KATUEAI HISTOET. [Book VII. 



third day before the ides of April," C. Crispinus Hilanis, a 

 man of a respectable family of the plebeian order, living at 

 Fsesulse,®' came to the Capitol, to offer sacrifice, attended by 

 eight children (of whom two -were daughters), twenty-eight 

 grandsons, nineteen great-grandsons, and eight granddaughters, 

 who all followed him in a lengthened train. 



CHAP. 12. (14.) AT WHAT AGE GENEEATIOlf CEASES. 



"Women cease to bear children at their fiftieth year, and, 

 with the greater part of them, the monthly discharge ceases at 

 the age of forty. But with respect to the male sex, it is a 

 weU-known fact, that King Masinissa, when he was past his 

 eighty-sixth year, had ' a son bom to him, whom he named 

 Metimanus,*' and that Cato the Censor, after he had completed 

 his eightieth year, had a son by the daughter of his client, 

 Salonius : a circumstance from which, while the descendants 

 of his other sons were surnamed Liciniani, those of this son 

 were called Saloniani, of whom Cato of Utica was one.®* It is 

 equally well known, too, that L. Volusius Satuminus,™ who 

 lately died while prefect of the city, had a son when-he was 

 past his seventy-second year,** by Cornelia, a member of the 

 family of the Scipios, Volusius Satuminus, who was afterwards 

 conavd. Among the lower classes of the people, we not un- 

 commonly meet with men who become the fathers of children 

 after the age of seventy-five. 



CHAP. 13. (15.) EEMAEKABLE CIECUMSTAlfCES COIWECTED WITH 



THE MENSTEUAL DISCHAEGB. 



Among the whole range of animated beings, the human fe- 



" Utt of April. 8» See B. ui. c. 8. 



*' This fact is mentioned by Valerius Maximns, B. -riii. c. 13. There 

 is some variation in the spelling of the name of the son of Masinissa ; 

 Solinus calls him Mathumannus. — B. 



^' Hardouin gives a detailed account of the children of Cato, by which 

 it appears that the Licinian branch descended from the issue by his wife 

 Licinia, and the Saloniani, of whom Cato of ITtica was one, from his son 

 Salonianus, by his second wife, Salonia. — B 



83 Volusius Satuminus is again mentioned in the 49th Chapter, as a re- 

 markable instance of longevity ; also by Tacitus, B. xiii. c. 30. B 



8* This reading stems preferable to sixty-second, adopted by Sillii' ; as 

 there would be nothing very remarkable in a man becoming a father when 

 sixty-two years of age. 



