Short answers, pulled from the story.
Simonides of Ceos was born between 556 BC and 532 BC and lived until at least 468 BC. Most scholars accept the timeline from 556 to 468 BC as the most plausible despite conflicting ancient sources.
Simonides of Ceos developed his mnemonic system after a banquet hall collapsed while he was inside. He identified each guest killed by correlating their identities to their positions at the table before the roof fell.
Simonides of Ceos composed commemorative verses for battles including Artemisium, Salamis, and Plataea. He wrote epitaphs for Spartans and Corinthians alongside those for Athenians.
The method of loci uses images and places to aid memory based on an experience where Simonides of Ceos remembered guests by their seating positions. This technique was widely used in oral societies until the Renaissance.
Archaeologists unearth new fragments of Simonides of Ceos poetry at Oxyrhynchus, a city and site in Egypt. Excavations have yielded papyrus fragments from over a century of digging there.