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 Euboeus. 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 Mytilene, Hipparchus tyrant of Athens, Paeanias king of Sparta, Hiero tyrant of Syracuse, with Themistocles, and with Alcæades 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 too 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 mean-

meannest, he said, that he had two coffers, in one of which he had for many years put his pecuniary re- wards; 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 fond 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 and his own frugality." To others he said, that his reason for accumulating wealth was, that "he would rather leave money to his enemies after death, than be troublesome to his friends while living."

He obtained the prize in poetry at the public games when he was four score years of age. According to Suidas, he added four letters to the Greek alphabet; and Pliny assigns to him the eighth string of the lyre; but these claims are disputed by the learned.

His poetry was so tender and plaintive, that he acquired the cognomen of Melicertes "sweet as honey;" and the tearful eye of his muse was proverbial. Dionysius places him among those polished writers who excel in a smooth volubility, and flow on like plenteous and perennial rivers, in a course of even and uninterrupted harmony.

It is to Dionysius that we are indebted for the preservation of the following fragment of this poet. Danae being by her merciless father inclosed in a chest, and thrown into the sea with her child, when night comes on, and a storm arises which threatens to overturn the chest, she, weeping and embracing the young Perseus, cries out:

Sweet child! what anguish does thy mother know, Ere cruel grief has taught thy tears to flow! Amidst the roaring wind's tremendous sound, Which threats destruction as it howls around; In balmy sleep thou liest, as at the breast, Without one bitter thought to break thy rest.— The glimm'ring moon in pity hides her light, And shrinks with horror at the ghastly sight. Didst thou but know, sweet innocent! our woes, Not opiate's pow'r thy eyelids now could close. Sleep on, sweet babe! ye waves in silence roll; And lull, O lull, to rest my tortur'd soul!

There is a second great poet of the name of Simonides recorded on the Marbles, supposed to have been his grandson, and who gained, in 478 B.C., the prize in the games at Athens.