The Macrobians (Μακροβίοι) were a legendary people and kingdom positioned in the Horn of Africa mentioned by Herodotus. It is one of the peoples postulated by the Greeks to exist at the extremity of the known world, in this case in the extreme south, contrasting with the Hyperboreans in the extreme north.
Their name is due to their legendary longevity, an average person supposedly living to the age of 120.[1] They were said to be the "tallest and handsomest of all men".[2] At the same time, they were reported as being physically distinct from the general inhabitants of the region below the Sahara.[3][4][2]
- ^ The Geography of Herodotus: Illustrated from Modern Researches and Discoveries by James Talboys Wheeler pg 528. The British Critic, Quarterly Theological Review, And Ecclesiastical Record Volume 11 pg 434
- ^ a b Wheeler pg 526
- ^ John Kitto, John Taylor, The Popular Cyclopædia of Biblical Literature: condensed from the larger work, (Gould and Lincoln: 1856), pp. 275-276.
- ^ The Geography of Herodotus: Illustrated from Modern Researches and Discoveries by James Talboys Wheeler pg 528.