In the reign of the same emperor, there was a man also, remarkable for his extremely diminutive stature, being only two feet and a palm in height; his name was Conopas, and he was a great pet with Julia, the grand-daughter of Augustus. There was a female also, of the same size, Andromeda by name, a freed-woman of Julia Augusta. We learn from Varro, that Manius Maximus and M. Tullius, members of our equestrian order, were only two cubits in height; and I have myself seen them, preserved in their coffins.[1048] It is far from an unknown fact, that children are occasionally born a foot and a half in height, and sometimes a little more; such children, however, have finished their span of existence by the time they are three years old.[1049] CHAP. 17.—CHILDREN REMARKABLE FOR THEIR PRECOCITY. We find it stated by the historians, that the son of Euthymenes of Salamis had grown to be three cubits in height, at the age of three years; that he was slow of gait and dull of comprehension; that at that age he had attained puberty even, and his voice had become strong, like that of a man. We hear, also, that he died suddenly of convulsions of the limbs, at the completion of his third year.[1050] I myself, not very long ago, was witness to exactly similar appearances, with the exception of the state of puberty, in a son of Cornelius Tacitus, a member of the equestrian order, and procurator[1051] of Belgic Gaul.[1052] The Greeks call such children as these, Ἐκτραπέλοι; we have no name for them in Latin. (17.) It has been observed, that the height of a man from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot, is equal to the distance between the tips of the middle fingers of the two hands when extended in a straight line; the right side of the body, too, is generally stronger than the left; though in some, the strength of the two sides is equal; while in others again, the left side is the strongest. This, however, is never found to be the case in women.[1053] CHAP. 18.—SOME REMARKABLE PROPERTIES OF THE BODY. Males are heavier than females, and the bodies of all animals are heavier when they are dead than when alive; they also weigh more when asleep than when awake. The dead bodies of men float upon the back, those of women with the face downwards; as if, even after death, nature were desirous of sparing their modesty.[1054]