Comment by btschaegg

> considering the alternative would be death

Which is exactly what happened to the first "dictator for life" (without the B) ;-). Even at more or less the exact age where one would expect someone to retire today.

See also: Julius Caesar, Ides of March

Edit: Just to make this clear, I also find the "I'm doing this as long as it works out and makes sense" to be the only useful approach to the "title" of BDFL.