¹Professor, University of Rome "La Sapenzia"

^*The original version of this article was published in Italian ("Il significato della longevità anche per chi hacento anni e piu") in Quaderni di economia del lavoro/70 edited by Luigi Frey. The account in this paper, based on diagrams supplied by Mr Marigliano and on a face-to-face interview with him that took place at an "Active Ageing" Seminar held on the 9 May 2001 in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Rome, La Sapienza, has been edited by Santa Minonne.