[wideawake]

Military service until age 50 doesn't pertain to the life expectancy of ancient Greek women, since women didn't serve in the military.

Of course not, but it seems unlikely for a society's rules to assume that most men will live at least twice as long as most women.

There was no shortage of old women in ancient Greece.

[SunkenCiv]

While there are always some who live a long time, longer than anyone they themselves know, the idea that men used to outlive their wives by many years isn't that remarkable. In the 19th century, one of my great-great-grandfathers was married three times (five kids by the first one, a second wife who died after about a year, perhaps from childbirth, and a third wife, my ancestor, who added another thirteen children) died an old man in the flu epidemic of 1873, which also claimed his third wife.