It was written during a time when the average life expectancy of men was around 40.
It includes people who die at birth, childhood illnesses, etc.
Once you were past 20, your remaining life time jumped significantly
Plenty of people lived long lives back then.
Turns out just having steady access to food, living a low stress lifestyle, and not having to wade through literal shit on the streets was all it took for some lucky ancient humans to have the same lifespans as modern humans.
But fair enough.
Exactly. There's no point in putting an upper age limit on a position when no one lives long enough for age to even be a factor.
Socrates made it to 71.
Citation needed. That claim seems clouded by today's standard of living.
Before there was clean drinking water, alcohol was much more widely consumed. Were people demented, drunk, or experiencing alcoholic dementia?
Before OSHA, jobs could cause similar symptoms. "Mad as a hatter" referred to hat-makers commonly getting mercury poisoning, as one example of job-induced dementia.
Before the FDA, we have examples from food and medicine.
Etc.