THE VARIETY OF DESTINIES AT THE BIRTH OF MAN

Latine · Mayhoff 1906

Poscere videtur locus ipse sideralis scientiae sententiam. Epigenes CXII annos inpleri negavit posse, Berosus excedi CXVI. durat et ea ratio, quam Petosiris ac N e cep sos tradidere (tetartemorion appellant a trium signorum portione), qua posse in Italiae tractu CXXIIII annos vitae contingere apparet. negavere illi quemquam LXXXX partium exortivam mensuram (quod anaphoras vocant) transgredi, et has ipsas incidi occursu maleficorum siderum aut etiam radiis eorum solisque. Aesculapi rursus secta, quae stata vitae spatia a stellis accipi dicit, quantum plurimum tribuat, incertum est. rara autem esse dicunt longiora quidem tempora, quoniam momentis horarum insignibus lunae dierum, ut VII atque XV, quae nocte ac die observantur, ingens turba nascatur scansili annorum lege occidua, quam climacteras appellant, non fere ita genitis LIIII annum excedentibus.

Primum ergo ipsius artis inconstantia declarat quam incerta res sit. accedunt experimenta recentissimi census, quem intra quadrienninm Imperatores Caesares Vespasiani pater filiusque censores egerunt. nec sunt omnia vasaria excutienda; mediae tantum partis inter Appenninum Padumque ponemus exempla: CXX annos Parmae tres edidere, Brixilli unus, CXXV Parmae duo, CXXX Placentiae unus, Favelltiae una mulier, CXXXV Bononiae L. Terentius M. filius, Arimini vero M. Aponius CXL, Tertulla CXXXVII. citra Placentiam in collibus oppidum est Veleiatium, in quo CX annos sex detulere, quattuor vero centenos vicenos, unus CXL, M. Mucius M. filius Galeria Felix. ac ne pluribus moremur in re confessa, in regione Italiae octava centenum annorum censi sunt homines LIIII, centenum denum homines XIIII, centenum vicenum quinum homines duo, centenum tricenum homines quattuor, centenum tricenum quinum aut septenum totidem, centenum quadragenum homines tres.

Alia mortalitatis inconstantia: Homerus eadem nocte natos Hectorem etPolydamanta tradidit, tam diversae sortis viros. C. Mario Cn. Carbone III cos. a. d. V kal. Iunias M. Caelius Rufus et C. Licinius Calvus eadem die geniti sunt, oratores quidem ambo, sed tam dispari eventu. hoc etiam isdem horis nascentibus in toto mundo cotidie evenit, pariterque domini ac servi gignuntur, reges et inopes.

English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57

The present conjuncture would appear to demand from me some opinion upon the science of the stars. Epigenes used to maintain that human life could not be possibly prolonged to one hundred and twelve years, and Berosus that it could exceed one hundred and seventeen. The system is still in existence which Petosiris and Necepsos transmitted to us, and called by them “tartemorion,” from the division of the signs into four portions; from which it would appear, that life, in the region of Italy, may possibly be extended to one hundred and twenty-four years. They maintain that, reckoning from the commencement of an ascending sign, no life can possibly exceed a period of ninety degrees from that point; which periods they call by the name of “anaphoræ;” they say also, that these anaphoræ may be intercepted by meeting with malign stars or their rays even, or those of the sun. To theirs the school of Æsculapius succeeded, which admits that the allotted duration of life is regulated by the stars, but that it is quite uncertain what is the greatest extent of the period. These say that long life is uncommon, because a very great number of persons are born at critical moments in the hours of the lunar days; for example, in the seventh and the fifteenth hours, both by day and night; these individuals are subject to the malign influence of that ascending scale of the years which is termed the “climacteric,” and never hardly, when born under these circumstances, exceed the fifty-fourth year. First of all, however, it must strike us that the variations which have taken place in this science prove its uncertainty; and to this consideration may be added the experience of the very last census, which was made four years ago, under the direction of the Emperors Vespasian, father and son. I shall not search through the registers; I shall only cite some instances in the middle district that lies between the Apennines and the river Padus. At Parma, three persons declared themselves to be one hundred and twenty years of age; at Brixellum, one was one hundred and twenty-five; at Parma, two were one hundred and thirty; at Placentia, one was one hundred and thirty; at Faventia, one woman was one hundred and thirty-two; at Bononia, L. Terentius, the son of Marcus, and at Ariminum, M. Aponius, were one hundred and forty, and Tertulla, one hundred and thirty-seven. In the hills which lie around Placentia is the town of Veleiacium, in which six persons gave in their ages as one hundred and ten years, and four one hundred and twenty, while one person, M. Mucius, the son of Marcus, surnamed Felix, and of the Galerian tribe, was aged one hundred and forty. Not, however, to dwell upon what is generally admitted, in the eighth region of Italy, there appeared by the register, to be fifty-four persons of one hundred years of age, fourteen of one hundred and ten, two of one hundred and twenty-five, four of one hundred and thirty, the same number of one hundred and thirty-five to one hundred and thirty-seven, and three of one hundred and forty.

Again, we have another illustration of the uncertain tenure of human life. Homer informs us that Hector and Polydamas were born on the same night, and yet how different was their fate! M. Cælius Rufus and C. Licinius Calvus were born on the same day, the fifth before the calends of June, in the consulship of C. Marius and Cn. Carbo; they both of them lived to be orators, it is true, but how different their destiny! The same thing, too, happens every day, and in every part of the world, with respect to men that are born in the self-same hour; masters and slaves, kings and beggars, come into the world at the same moment.