While the number of centenarians per capita was much lower in ancient times than today, the data suggest that they were not unheard of. Estimates of
life expectancy in antiquity are far lower than modern values largely due to the far greater incidence of deaths in infancy or childhood, though adult mortality was also considerably greater than today. The assumption of what constitutes "old age", or being "elderly", at least, seems to have remained unchanged since antiquity, the line being generally drawn at either sixty or sixty-five years;
Psalm 90:10 in the
Hebrew Bible appears to give seventy to eighty years as the natural life expectancy of a person surviving into old age, "The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty". A survey of the lifespans of male individuals with entries in the
Oxford Classical Dictionary (i.e., a sample pre-selected to include those who lived long enough to attain historical notability) found a median lifespan of 72 years, and a range of 32 to 107 years, for 128 individuals born before 100 BC (though the same study found a median lifespan of 66 years for 100 individuals born after 100 BC but no later than 602 AD); by comparison, male individuals listed in
Chambers Biographical Dictionary who died between 1900 and 1949 had a median lifespan of 71.5 years, with a range between 29 and 105 years. But as indicated above, far fewer in antiquity survived even from early adulthood to such advanced age – probably under a fifth, compared to a global average of two-thirds today. The author of a 1994 study concluded that it was only in the second half of the 20th century that medical advances have extended the life expectancy of those who live into adulthood. though this is flatly contradicted by 19th- and early 20th-century census and registration data and by estimates for medieval and ancient populations: US and English expectation of remaining years at age 15 for example rose from about 44 in the mid-19th century to 56 by 1950, and has since increased to 65–67; for English landholders (a relatively privileged group) it was 33 years c.1300, while Ulpian's life table for ancient Rome indicates only 30 years. Reliable references to individuals in antiquity who lived past 100 years are quite rare, but they do exist. For instance, Cicero's wife
Terentia was reported by
Pliny the Elder to have lived from 98 BC to 6 AD, 103 years. Regnal dates of Bronze Age monarchs are notoriously unreliable; the
sixth dynasty Egyptian ruler
Pepi II is sometimes listed as having lived , as he is said to have reigned for 94 years, but alternative readings cite a reign of just 64 years.
Adad-guppi, mother of the last king of the
Neo-Babylonian Empire Nabonidus apparently lived from -544 BC (c. 104 years) according to inscriptions on funeral
steles.
Zhao Tuo, a
Qin Dynasty general, reportedly lived to age 103.
Tuoba Liwei also reportedly lived to 103.
Marcus Valerius Corvus reportedly lived to 100.
Diogenes Laërtius () gives one of the earliest references regarding the plausible centenarian longevity given by a scientist, the astronomer
Hipparchus of Nicaea (), who, according to the doxographer, said that the philosopher
Democritus of Abdera () lived 109 years. Other ancient accounts of Democritus agree that the philosopher lived at least 90 years. The case of Democritus differs from those of, for example,
Epimenides of Crete (7th and 6th centuries BC), who is said to have lived an implausible 154, 157, or 290 years, depending on the source. Other ancient Greek philosophers thought to have lived beyond the age of 90 include
Xenophanes of Colophon (),
Pyrrho of Ellis (),
Gorgias of Leontinoi, and
Eratosthenes of Cirene (). Also, the Greek rhetorician Isocrates of Athens (436–338 BC) lived 97/98 years and the famous Greek tragedian Sophocles (497/496-406/405 BC) lived at least 90 years.
Hosius of Córdoba, the man who convinced
Constantine the Great to call the
First Council of Nicaea, reportedly lived to age 102. A rare record of an ordinary person who lived to be a centenarian is the tombstone of
Roman British legionary veteran Julius Valens, inscribed "VIXIT ANNIS C". It is believed the 7th century
Pope Agatho lived to 103-104, making him the longest lived pope to this day as well as the only pope to become a centenarian. In the medieval period,
Albert Azzo II, Margrave of Milan (d. 1097) is said by
Bernold of Constance to have lived past 100 years (
iam maior centenario). ==Research==