Depontāni Senes
A name given at Rome to men sixty years of age, hence called
sexagenarii, because they were freed from the obligation of voting in the Roman
comitia; that is, of passing over the bridges (
pontes) which led into
the
saepta, where the voting took place. (See
Comitia.) This is the most probable explanation of the word; and it is
doubtful whether men of sixty years of age were absolutely deprived of the franchise, though
this was the case if we accept literally the statement that they were thrust back from voting,
de ponte deiiciebantur (
Fest. pp. 75,
Fest. 334M.). Some ancient writers supposed that the name
depontani had reference to a barbarous custom of antiquity, that men of
sixty years of age were thrown down from the
pons sublicius into the
Tiber, but this interpretation was repudiated by Varro and Verrius ( Fest. ll. cc.; Varr.
ap. Non. p. 523;
Rosc. Am. 35, 100; Ovid,
Fast. v. 623; Macrob. i. 5;
Quaest. Rom. 32).