SIMONIDES, the name of several poets celebrated in antiquity; but by the Marbles it appears, that the eldest and most illustrious of them was born in the 55th Olympiad, 538 years B. C. and that he died in his 90th year; which nearly agrees with the chronology of Eusebius. He was a native of Ceos, one of the Cyclades, in the neighbourhood of Attica, and the preceptor of Pindar. Both Plato and Cicero give him the character not only of a good poet and musician, but speak of him as a person of great virtue and wisdom. Such longevity gave him an opportunity of knowing a great number of the first characters in antiquity, with whom he was in some measure connected. It appears in Fabricius, from ancient authority, that Simonides was contemporary and in friendship with Pittacus of Mitylene, Hipparchus tyrant of Athens, Pausanias king of Sparta, Hiero tyrant of Syracuse, with Themistocles, and with Alevades king of Thessaly. He is mentioned by Herodotus; and Xenophon, in his Dialogue upon Tyranny, makes him one of the interlocutors with Hiero king of Syracuse. Cicero alleges, what has often been quoted in proof of the modesty and wisdom of Simonides, that when Hiero asked him for a definition of God, the poet required a whole day to meditate on so important a question; at the end of which, upon the prince putting the same question to him a second time, he asked two days respite; and in this manner always doubled the delay each time he was required to answer it; till at length, to avoid offending his patron by more disappointments, he frankly confessed that he found the question so difficult, that the more he meditated upon it, the less was his hope of being able to solve it.
In his old age, perhaps from seeing the respect which money procured to such as had lost the charms of youth and the power of attaching mankind by other means, he became somewhat mercenary and avaricious. He was frequently employed by the victors at the games to write panegyrics and odes in their praise, before his pupil Pindar had exercised his talents in their behalf: but Simonides would never gratify their vanity in this particular till he had first tied them down to a stipulated sum for his trouble; and upon being upbraided for his meanness, he said, that he had two coffers, in one of which he had for many years put his pecuniary rewards; the other was for honours, verbal thanks, and promises; that the first was pretty well filled, but the last remained always empty. And he made no scruple to confess, in his old age, that of all the enjoyments of life, the love of money was the only one of which time had not deprived him.
He was frequently reproached for this vice; however, he always defended himself with good-humour. Upon being asked by Hiero's queen, Whether it was most desirable to be learned or rich? he answered, that it was far better to be rich; for the learned were always dependent on the rich, and waiting at their doors; whereas he never saw rich men at the doors of the learned. When he was accused of being so sordid as to sell part of the provisions with which his table was furnished by Hiero, he said he had done it in order "to display to the world the magnificence of that prince"