Bacon, Francis, Sylva sylvarum : or, a natural history in ten centuries
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29719The Hiſtory of Life and Death. Spain lived an hundred and thirty, or (as ſome would have it) an hundred and for-
ty years, of which he reigned eighty.
Concerning his Manners, Inſtitution of his
Liſe, and the time wherein he reigned, there is a general ſilence.
Cyair as King of
Cyprus, living in the I ſland then termed the Happy and Pleaſant I ſland, is affirmed
to have attained to an hundred and fifty or ſixty years.
Two Latin Kings in Italy,
the Father and the Son, are reported to have lived, the one eight hundred, the other
ſix hundred years:
but this is delivered unto us by certain Philologiſts, who though
otherwiſe credulous enough, yet themſelves have ſuſpected the truth of this matter,
or rather condemned it.
Others record ſome Arcadian Kings to have lived three han-
dred years:
the Country, no doubt, is a place apt for long life; but the Relation
I ſuſpect to be fabulous.
They tell of one Dando in Illyrium, that lived without the
inconveniences of old age to five hundred years.
They tell alſo of the Epians, a part
of Ætolia, that the whole Nation of them were excceding long liv’d, inſomuch
that many of them were two hundred years old;
and that one principal man amongſt
them, named Litorius, a man of a Giant-like ſtature, could have told three hundred
years.
It is recorded, that on the top of the Mountain timolus, anciently called
Tempſis, many of the Inhabitants lived to an hundred and fifty years.
We read that
the Sect of the Eſſeans amongſt the Jews did uſually extend their life to an hundred
years:
Now that Sect uſed a ſingle or abſtemious diet, after the rule of Pythagoras.
Apollonius Tyaneus exceeded an hundred years, his face bewraying no ſuch age:
he was an admirable man, of the Heathens reputed to have ſomething Divine in him,
of the chriſtians held for a Sorcerer;
in his diet Pythagorical, a great traveller,
much renowned, and by ſome adored as a god:
notwithſtanding, towards the end
of his life he was ſubject to many complaints againſt him, and reproaches, all which
he made ſhift to eſcape.
But leſt his long life ſhould be imputed to his Pythagorical
d et, and not rather that it was hereditary, his Grandfather before him lived an
hundred and thirty years.
It is undoubted that Quintus Metellus lived above an
hundred years, and that after ſeveral Conſulſhips happily adminiſtred, in his old age
he was made Pontifex Maximus, and exerciſed thoſe holy duties full two and twenty
years;
in the performance of which Rites his voice never failed, nor his hand trem-
bled.
It is moſt certain that Appius cæcus was very old, but his years are not extant,
the moſt part whereof he paſſed after he was blind;
yet this misfortune no whit
ſoftned him, but that he was able to govern a numerous Family, a great Retinue
and Dependance, yea, even the Commonwealth it ſelf, with great ſtoutneſs.
In
his extream old age he was brought in a Litter into the Senate-houſe, and vehe-
mently diſſwaded the Peace with Pyrrhus:
the beginning of his Oration was very
memorable, ſhewing an invincible ſpirit and ſtrength of mind;
I have with great
grief of mind (Fathers conſcript) theſe many years born my blindneſs, but now I could
wiſh that I were deaf alſo, when I hear you ſpeak to ſuch diſ@onourable Treaties.
Marcus
Perpenna lived ninety eight years, ſurviving all thoſe whoſe Suffrages he had gather-
ed in the senate-houſe, being Conſul, I mean, all the Senators at that time;
as al-
ſo all thoſe whom a little after, being Conſul, he choſe into the Senate, ſeven onely
being excepted.
Hiero King of Sicily, in the time of the ſecond Punick War, lived
almoſt an hundred years:
a man moderate both in his Government and in his Life;
a worſhiper of the gods, and a religious conſerver of Friendſhip:
liberal, and con-
ſtanſly fortunate.
Statilia, deſcended of a noble Family in the days of Claudius,
lived ninety nine years.
clodia, the daughter of Oſilius, an hundred and fifteen. Xe-
nophilus, an ancient Philoſopher, of the Sect of Pythagoras, attained to an hundred
and ſix years, remaining healthful and vigorous in his old age, and famous amongſt
the vulgar for his learning.
The Iſlanders of Corcyra were anciently accounted
long liv’d, but now they live after the rate of other men, Hipocrates Cous, the fa-
mous Phyſician, lived an hundred and four years, and approved and credited his own
Art by ſo long a life:
a man that coupled Learning and Wiſdom together, very
converſant in Experience and Obſervation;
one that haunted not after Words or
Methods, but ſevered the very Nerves of Science, and ſo propounded them.
Demo-
nax a Philoſoper, not onely in Profeffion but Practice, lived in the dayes of Adrian al-
moſt to an hundred years:
a man of an high mind, and a vanquiſher of his own
mind, and that truly and without affectation;
a contemner of the world, and yet
civil and courteous.
When his friends ſpake to him about his Burial, he ſaid,
Take no care for my Burial, for Stench will bury a Carcaſe.
They replied, Is it

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