150 
pliist's natueal histoet. 
[Book VIL- 
third day before the ides of April,"^^ C. Crispimis Hilarus, a 
man of a respectable family of the plebeian order, living at 
FsesulsD,^^ 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 GEJ^^EEATIOIf 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 
well-known fact, that King Masinissa, when he was past his 
eighty-sixth year, had a son born 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. Yolusius Saturninus/^ 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, Yolusius Saturninus, who was afterwards 
consul. 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 CIECUMSTAI^CES CONNECTED WITH 
THE MENSTRUAL DISCHABGE. 
Among the whole range of animated beings, the human fe- 
^9 nth of April. 80 See B. hi. c. 8. 
^1 This fact is mentioned by Valerius Maximus, B. viii. c. 13. There 
is some variation in the spelling of the name of the son of Masinissa ; 
Solinus calls him Mathumanniis. — 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 Utica was one, from his son 
Salonianus, by his second wife, Salonia. — B 
83 Yolusius Saturninus is again mentioned in the 49th Chapter, as a re- 
markable instance of longevity ; also by Tacitus, B. xiii. c. 30.— B 
^ This reading seems preferable to sixty-second, adopted by Sillig ; as 
there would be nothing very remarkable in a man becoming a father when 
sixty- two years of age. 
