 In a quote recorded by Plutarch, he once complained that old age had robbed him of every pleasure but making money.All these amusing anecdotes might simply reflect the fact that he was the first poet to charge fees for his services – generosity is glimpsed in his payment for an inscription on a friend's epitaph, as recorded by Herodotus.Herodotus also mentions an earlier poet Arion, who had amassed a fortune on a visit to Italy and Sicily, so maybe Simonides was not the first professional poet, as claimed by the Greeks themselves.