Etruscan veiled woman from Vulci - Hellenistic Period (300-50 BCE)

"Others have pretended that life could be prolonged to 120 years, and others even beyond this time. There are some who have thought that the duration of life was not the same everywhere, but that it varied in each country according to the local inclination of the heavens (stars) at the horizon. The Greeks call this “Climate.” But although the truth is hidden and obscure, the ritual of the Etruscans enlightens us as to the (sæcular) cycles employed in their states. From their books we learn how these cycles were established. Going back to the day of the foundation of cities and states they select from those who were born on that day, he who lived the longest time; and the day of his death marks the end of the first cycle or age. Amongst those whose birth dates back to this period, it is him who lives the longest whose death will serve to mark the end of the second cycle or age; and in this manner the duration of the following cycles is measured. But in their ignorance of the truth, men have imagined that the Gods apprised them by portents of the end of each cycle. Accomplished in the art of the aruspice, the Etruscans after having searched for these portents with attention, enter them in their books. So the Annals of Etruria, written, as Varro tells us, in the Eighth age, mention how many ages are reserved to the nation, how many have passed and by what portents the end of each is signalized. Thus we read that the first four cycles were of 105 years, the fifth of 123, the sixth of 119, as was also the seventh; that the eighth cycle was then begun, and that there remained but the ninth and tenth to run their course, after which the Etruscan name would perish. As to the Ages of Rome, some authors think they are (also) measured by the Cyclical Games or Ludi Sæculares. If this opinion is held to be true, the duration of the Roman cycles is vague, because both the interval of time at which the Games were formerly celebrated and even the epoch at which they should be held, is uncertain."

-Censorinus, The Natal Day: Part 1, Chapter 6

Etruscan veiled woman from Vulci - Hellenistic Period (300-50 BCE). From Vulci, votive deposit of an urban sanctuary at "Area I", on the northeast slopes of La Città (1996-2002 excavations). Current location: Museo Nazionale Etrusco di Villa Giulia.

Source:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/dandiffendale/15947314897/in/photostream/

 

Quote:

http://elfinspell.com/ClassicalTexts/Maude/Censorinus/DeDieNatale-Part1.html#chap1