LIBER VII · CAPUT 5
THE GENERATION OF MAN; UNUSUAL DURATION OF PREGNANCY; INSTANCES OF IT FROM SEVEN TO TWELVE MONTHS
Latine · Mayhoff 1906
Ceteris animantibus statum et pariendi et partus gerendi tempus est; homo toto anno et incerto gignitur spatio, alius septimo mense, alius octavo et usque ad initia undecimi. ante septimum mensem haut umquam vitalis est. septimo non nisi pridie posterove pleniluni die aut interlunio concepti nascuntur. tralaticium in Aegypto est et octavo gigni, iam quidem et in Italia tales partus esse vitales, contra priscorum opiniones. variant haec pluribus modis. Vistilia, Gliti ac postea Pomponi atque Orfiti clarissimorum civium coniunx, ex iis quattuor partus enixa septimo semper mense, genuit Suillium Rufum undecimo, Corbulone m septimo, utrumque consulem, postea Caesoniam, Gai principis coniugem, octavo. in quo mensum numero genitis intra quadragensimum diem maximus labor, gravidis autem quarto et octavo mense, letalesque in iis abortus. Masu; rius auctor est L. Papirium praetorem secundo herede lege agente bonorum possessionem contra eum dedisse, cum mater partum setredecim mensibus diceret tulisse, quoniam nullum certum tempus pariendi statutum videretur.
English · Bostock & Riley 1855–57
In other animals the period of gestation and of birth is fixed and definite, while man, on the other hand, is born at all seasons of the year, and without any certain period of gestation; for one child is born at the seventh month, another at the eighth, and so on, even to the beginning of the tenth and eleventh. Those children which are born before the seventh month are never known to survive; unless, indeed, they happen to have been conceived the day before or the day after the full moon, or at the change of the moon. In Egypt it is not an uncommon thing for children to be born at the eighth month; and in Italy, too, children that are born at this period live just as long as others, notwithstanding the opinions of the ancients to the contrary. There are great variations in this respect, which occur in numerous ways. Vestilia, for instance, who was the wife of C. Herdicius, and was afterwards married, first, to Pomponius, and then to Orfitus, very eminent citizens, after having brought forth four children, always at the seventh month, had Suillius Rufus at the eleventh month, and then Corbulo at the seventh, both of whom became consuls; after which, at the eighth month, she had Cæsonia, who became the wife of the Emperor Caius. As for children who are born at the eighth month, the greatest difficulty with them is to get them over the first forty days. Pregnant women, on the other hand, are in the greatest danger during the fourth and the eighth month, and abortions during these periods are fatal. Masurius informs us, that L. Papirius, the prætor, on one occasion, when the next but one in succession was urging his suit at law, decided against him, in favour of the heir, although his mother declared that her period of gestation had lasted thirteen months—upon the ground that it did not appear that there was any fixed and definite period of gestation.