CHAP. 12. (14.)—AT WHAT AGE GENERATION 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,[1] 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.[2] It is equally well known, too, that L. Volusius Saturninus,[3] who lately died while prefect of the city, had a son when he was past his seventy-second year,[4] by Cornelia, a member of the family of the Scipios, Volusius Saturninus, who was afterwards consul. Among the lower classes of the people, we not uncommonly meet with men who become the fathers of children after the age of seventy-five.

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 Mathumannus.—B.

2. 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

3. Volusius Saturninus is again mentioned in the 49th Chapter, as a re- markable instance of longevity; also by Tacitus, B. xiii. c. 30.—B

4. 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.