Saturday, January 25, 2025

How long ancient Romans lived

The average life expectancy in ancient Rome was 35 years.

World History

T he Roman Empire is responsible for countless innovations that are still used on a daily basis, but it would be putting it lightly to say that medical science has advanced quite a bit since Rome fell. Given that — as well as all the gladiators, wars, and assassinated emperors — it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise to learn that life expectancy in ancient Rome was just 35 years. Yet the real culprit behind that figure is actually the infant mortality rate at the time, as some 25% of babies born in the first century CE didn't make it past 1 year old, and only half survived past the age of 10.

Life expectancy is an average, and one that has tended to increase over time, but lifespan hasn't actually changed much in human history. Indeed, it was not uncommon for ancient Romans to live to a ripe old age. Gordian I was 81 when he became emperor of Rome, and Roman statesman Cicero's wife Terentia lived to be 103, for instance. Pliny the Elder (who, despite his moniker, lived to be just 55 before dying in the eruption of Mount Vesuvius) was particularly impressed by one centenarian he studied. He wrote, "The solitary instance of Xenophilus, the musician, who lived one hundred and five years without any infirmity of body, must be regarded then as a kind of miracle."

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By the Numbers

Life expectancy in Hong Kong, one of the highest in the world

85.63

Age reached by Jeanne Calment, the oldest person to ever live

122

Did you know?

The king of Pontus consumed small amounts of poison to develop an immunity to it.

History is written by the victors, but even Rome had to have been impressed by one of its greatest foes: Mithridates VI Eupator, who led the Kingdom of Pontus for nearly six decades and regularly waged war against the Roman Republic. The Romans considered him their most formidable opponent since Hannibal, with the three Mithridatic Wars fought between 89 BCE and 63 BCE to show for it. As he rightly believed he had a target on his back, Mithridates began ingesting small quantities of poison on a regular basis in order to develop an immunity to its effects. According to Roman physician Aulus Cornelius Celsus, this toxic concoction consisted of 36 different ingredients that were ground into a powder before being mixed with honey and formed into chewable tablets the size of an almond. It seems to have been effective: Mithridates tried to take his own life via poison after being soundly defeated by Pompey, but it didn't work. More than 2,000 years later, the term "mithridate" survives to describe an antidote against poison.