25
Cratinus, the comic poet, lived ninety-seven years, and toward the end of his life he produced “The Flask” and won the prize, dying not long thereafter. Philemon, the comic poet, was ninety-seven like Cratinus, and was lying on a couch resting. When he saw a donkey eating the figs that had been prepared for his own consumption, he burst into a fit of laughter; calling his servant and telling him, along with a great and hearty laugh, to give the donkey also a sup of wine, he choked with his laughter and died.1 Epicharmus, the comic poet, is also said to have lived ninety-seven years.
26
Anacreon, the lyric poet, lived eighty-five years; Stesichorus, the lyric poet, the same, and Simonides of Ceos more than ninety.
27
Of the grammarians, Eratosthenes, son of Aglaus, of Cyrene, who was not only a grammarian but might also be called a poet, a philosopher and a geometrician, lived eighty-two years.
28
Lycurgus, the Spartan lawgiver, is said to have lived eighty-five years. The same story is told of Chrysippus (Diog. Laert. 7.185).
29
These are the kings and the literary men whose names I have been able to collect. As I have promised to record some of the Romans and the Italians who were octogenarians, I will set them forth for you, saintly Quintillus, in another treatise, if it be the will of the gods,
