Quincentenarian

As the Impératrice stopped two or three days in the magnificent harbor of Smyrna I had good opportunity to land and make my way to the scene of Polycarp’s Martyrdom amid the colossal cypresses which outdo all those of Italy, except the quincentenarians in the Giusti garden in Verona.

Judge Sullivan’s idea that men will sometime live to be 500 years old may prove true, but there is nothing enticing about the prospect. Unless the vigor of youth can accompany old age, the quincentenarian would be a Struldbrug or a Tithonus, a monster of senile hideousness or a being withered away to a whisper.

Dr. John J. McKetta’s most startling prediction—though he doesn’t say when it’s going to happen—is that the human life span will be increased to 500 years.[…]But, playing along with this game, many of us must wonder how one of these future quincentenarians is going to manage to live so long in such a world — especially if he tries to cross a road where the self-propelled, electric-eye-driven automobiles are whizzing by.

Upon waking, Ornaith’s thoughts went to this year’s celebrated quincentenarian, Christopher Columbus.

“The Guardians,” said Draeg, “are all quincentenarians at least. For them, we’re the Longevity Project.”[…]Her train extended back a good five meters, with two pairs of trainsweeps; a quincentenarian, at least.

In some references, he is said to have lived to be 500 years old, which may have given rise to the brief mention of a 500-year-old man here (I have found no other quincentenarians among Bacon’s or the De retardatione’s various examples of long life).