Octogenerians (18-21)

These are the kings who have been recorded as long-lived by our predecessors. Since philosophers and literary men in general, doubtless because they too take good care of themselves, have attained old age,

They say that when Zeno stumbled in entering the assembly, he cried out: “Why do you call me?” [*] and then, returning home, starved himself to death. Cleanthes, the pupil and successor of Zeno, was ninety-nine’ when he got a tumour on his lip. He was fasting when letters from certain of his friends arrived, but he had food brought him, did what his friends had requested, and then fasted anew until he passed away.

Xenophanes, son of Dexinus and disciple of Archelaus the physicist, lived ninety-one years; Xenocrates, the disciple of Plato, eighty-four; Carneades, the head of the New Academy, eightyfive; Chrysippus, eighty-one; Diogenes of Seleucia on the Tigris, a Stoic philosopher, eighty-eight; Posidonius of Apameia in Syria, naturalised in Rhodes,

Athenodorus, son of Sando, of Tarsus, a Stoic, tutor of Caesar Augustus the divine, through whose influence the city of Tarsus was relieved of taxation, died in his native land at the age of eighty-two, and the people of Tarsus pay him honour each year as a hero. Nestor, the Stoic from Tarsus, the tutor of Tiberius Caesar, lived ninety-two years, and Xenophon, son of Gryllus, more than ninety.1 These are the noteworthy philosophers.