Joannes Stobaios, "On old age": an important source for the history of gerontology.

Literary and medical writers have written about elderly people--their health, constitution, and treatment--since the dawn of history. The dramatic demographic changes that have taken place within industrial nations in recent times have certainly imparted this theme with a heretofore-unknown explosiveness. Joannes Stobaios' (5th c.) three chapters "On old age" have long been largely unappreciated in the history of gerontology and geriatrics. This late Ancient author collected numerous citations from other, earlier authors who lived between 800 BCE and 400 CE and brought them together thematically in an anthology of monumental scope. The work contains the only versions--albeit sometimes fragmentary--of many texts now otherwise lost. This is also true for the gerontological writings; Stobaios proved that, as early as the end of the Ancient period, an appreciable corpus of relevant texts existed, of which only very little--excepting Cicero's well-known text "On old age" (Cato maior de senectute)--survived into the modern period. These texts reveal that the question as to whether old age is a burden or a joy is ancient and evidently insoluble. This article presents the gerontological aspects of Stobaios' work and places them in their historical context. This will demonstrate that Stobaios was also a defender of seniority who made clear the value, as well as the tasks and ethical duties, of this phase of life. From the Ancients' perspective, this was not a medical but a moral obligation.