What is "macrobians"

The Macrobians , meaning long-lived, were a legendary tribe of Aethiopia and kingdom positioned in the land towards the western sunset at the ends of the earth in ancient Libya (Africa). According to Herodotus they dwelt geographically along the sea south of Libya on the Atlantic opposite of the Erythraean sea to the east of them. This Libya was south of the Pillars of Hercules and Atlas Mountains along the Atlantic coast, while the northern Libyan coast was the Mediterranean Sea. Concerning the southern sea, Herodotus places the Persians east of the southern sea in Asia, the Arabians & East Africans south of the sea in Arabia and the Macrobians west of the southern Sea in Libya. Herodotus also stated that the Macrobian Ethiopians were i ndigenous to southern Libya while the Libyans along the Mediterranean Sea were indigenous to northern Libya. Later authors such as Scylax in his periplus also place them south of the pillars of Hercules, and Scylax also reported a trade taking place between Phoenicians (Carthaginians) and tall Ethiopians (Macrobians). Herodotus also mentions a silent trade of gold that took place between Carthaginians and natives south of Libya (Ethiopians) beyond the Pillars of Hercules; it was also this gold trade that motivated Cambyses, the King of Persia, to plan a land and sea expedition against both the Carthaginians and Macrobian Ethiopians. Pliny in his natural histories places them west of Meroe. The Macrobians are one of the legendary peoples postulated to exist at the extremity of the known world (from the perspective of the Greeks), in this case in the extreme west towards the sunset beyond the Pillars of Hercules in Libya ( Africa), contrasting with India towards the sunrise in the extreme east of Asia, and southern Arabia & the east African coast towards the extreme south of the Erythraean Sea.

Their name is due to their legendary longevity, an average person supposedly living to the age of 120. They were said to be the "tallest and handsomest of all men". At the same time, they were reported as being physically distinct from the rest of mankind.