# Callias III > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Callias_III > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Callias_III.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callias_III > Source revision: 1354351401 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Short description|4th-century BC Athenian aristocrat and politician}} '''Callias''' ({{langx|el|Kαλλίας}}, known as '''Callias III''' to distinguish him from his [grandfather](/source/Callias_II) and great-great-grandfather) was an [ancient Athenian](/source/Classical_Athens) aristocrat and political figure. He was the son of [Hipponicus](/source/Hipponicus) and an unnamed woman (she later married [Pericles](/source/Pericles){{R|plut_24}}), an [Alcmaeonid](/source/Alcmaeonidae) and the third member of one of the most distinguished [Athenian](/source/Athens) families to bear the name of Callias. He was regarded as infamous for his extravagance and profligacy. He apparently inherited his family's fortune in 424 BC. In 371 BC, he was one of the Athenian envoys sent to Sparta to negotiate peace. He is said to have spent his family's enormous wealth on [sophists](/source/sophists), flatterers, and women, and to have died in poverty. He is a character in several Socratic dialogues: Plato's ''[Protagoras](/source/Protagoras_(Plato))'' and Xenophon's ''[Symposium](/source/Symposium_(Xenophon))'' are set at his house, and he featured in [Aeschines of Sphettus](/source/Aeschines_of_Sphettus)'s lost ''Aspasia''. ==Life== Callias' family was unusually wealthy: the major part of their fortune came from the leasing of large numbers of slaves to the state-owned [silver](/source/silver) mines of [Laurium](/source/Laurium). In return, the ''Calliai'' were paid a share of the mine proceeds, in silver. Accordingly, they were considered the richest family in Athens and quite possibly in all of Greece, and the head of the family was often simply referred to as "''ho plousios''" ([Greek](/source/Greek_language): "ὁ πλούσιος", "the wealthy"). The only other family that could rival their wealth were the [tyrants of Syracuse](/source/List_of_Tyrants_of_Syracuse). Callias must have inherited the family's fortune in 424 BC, which can be reconciled with the mention of him in the [comedy](/source/comedy) the ''Flatterers'' of [Eupolis](/source/Eupolis), 421 BC, as having recently entered into his inheritance.{{R|ath_5}} In 400 BC, he was involved in an attempt to destroy the career of the Attic orator, [Andocides](/source/Andocides), by charging him with profanity in having placed a supplicatory bough on the altar of the temple at [Eleusis](/source/Eleusis) during the celebration of the Mysteries.{{R|andoc}} However, according to Andocides, the bough was actually placed there by Callias himself. In 392 BC, he was placed in command of the Athenian heavy-armed troops at [Corinth](/source/Ancient_Corinth) on the occasion of their defeat of a [Sparta](/source/Sparta)n regiment, or [Mora](/source/Mora_(military_unit)), by [Iphicrates](/source/Iphicrates).{{R|xen_4.5}} Callias was hereditary [proxenus](/source/Hospitium) (roughly the equivalent of the modern consul) to Sparta, and, as such, was chosen as one of the envoys empowered to negotiate a peace with Sparta in 371 BC. On this occasion [Xenophon](/source/Xenophon) reports that Callias gave an absurd and self-glorifying speech.{{R|xen_6.3_5.4}} It is said that Callias dissipated all his inherited wealth on [sophist](/source/sophist)s, flatterers, and women. These behaviours became quite evident early in his life so that he was commonly spoken of, before his father's death, being the "evil genius" of his family.{{R|andoc_arist_ath_4_ael_4.16}} He is acclaimed in Plato's [Apology](/source/Apology_(Plato)) as having "paid more money to sophists than all the others."{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6NoPabBYcgAC&q=paid+more+money+to+sophists+than+all+the+others&pg=PA67|title=Four Texts on Socrates: Plato's Euthyphro, Apology, and Crito, and Aristophanes' Clouds|last=Plato|date=1998|publisher=Cornell University Press|isbn=0801485746|language=en}} The scene of Xenophon's ''[Symposium](/source/Symposium_(Xenophon))'', and also that of [Plato](/source/Plato)'s ''[Protagoras](/source/Protagoras_(Plato))'', is set at Callias' house during a banquet hosted by him for his beloved [Autolykos](/source/Autolycus_of_Athens) in honour of a victory gained by the handsome young man in the [pentathlon](/source/pentathlon) at the [Panathenaic Games](/source/Panathenaic_Games).{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Callias and Hipponicus|display=Callias and Hipponicus s.v. 3. Callias|volume=5|page=57}} In the latter especially Callias' character is drawn with some vivid sketches as a dilettante highly amused with the intellectual fencing of [Protagoras](/source/Protagoras) and [Socrates](/source/Socrates).{{R|plat}} Callias III is also an interlocutor with Socrates in [Aeschines of Sphettus](/source/Aeschines_of_Sphettus)' dialogue, ''Aspasia''.Nails, D., ''The People of Plato: A Prosopography of Plato and Other Socratics'' ([Hackett Publishing](/source/Hackett_Publishing), 2002), p. 73. Callias is said to have ultimately reduced himself to absolute beggary, to which the sarcasm of Iphicrates{{R|aris_3.2}} in calling him ''metragyrtes'' instead of ''daduchos'' refers. Callias died so poor that he could not afford the common necessities of life.{{R|ath_12_lys}} He left a legitimate son named Hipponicus.{{R|andoc}} ==See also== *[List of speakers in Plato's dialogues](/source/List_of_speakers_in_Plato's_dialogues) *[Pederasty in ancient Greece](/source/Pederasty_in_ancient_Greece) ==Notes== {{Reflist|refs= [Plutarch](/source/Plutarch), ''[Parallel Lives](/source/Parallel_Lives)'', "Pericles", [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plut.+Per.+24.1 24] [Athenaeus](/source/Athenaeus), ''[Deipnosophistae](/source/Deipnosophistae)'', [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=turn&entity=Literature000801870352&isize=M&q1=callias&pview=hide v. 59] Andocides, ''Speeches'', "On the Mysteries", [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+1+110 110] Xenophon, ''[Hellenica](/source/Hellenica_(Xenophon))'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Xen.+Hell.+4.5.1 iv. 5] Xenophon, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Xen.+Hell.+6.3.1 vi. 3], [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Xen.+Hell.+5.4.1 v. 4] Andocides, [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Andoc.+1+130 130]; [Aristophanes](/source/Aristophanes), ''[The Frogs](/source/The_Frogs)'', v. [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristoph.+Frogs+432 432]; Athenaeus, [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=turn&entity=Literature000801870276&q1=callias&pview=hide iv. 67]; [Aelian](/source/Claudius_Aelianus), ''Varia Historia'', [http://remacle.org/bloodwolf/historiens/elien/4.htm iv. 16] Plato, ''Protagoras'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Plat.+Prot.+335c pp. 335-38] [Aristotle](/source/Aristotle), ''[Rhetoric](/source/Rhetoric_(Aristotle))'', [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Aristot.+Rh.+2.23.1 iii. 2] Athenaeus, [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/Literature/Literature-idx?type=turn&entity=Literature000801890047&q1=callias&pview=hide xii. 52]; [Lysias](/source/Lysias), ''Speeches'', "On the Property of Aristophanes", [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?lookup=Lys.+19+48 48] }} ==References== *[Smith, William](/source/William_Smith_(lexicographer)) (editor); ''[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology](/source/Dictionary_of_Greek_and_Roman_Biography_and_Mythology)'', {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20060101091214/http://www.ancientlibrary.com/smith-bio/0576.html "Callias III"]}}, [Boston](/source/Boston), (1867) *{{SmithDGRBM|title=Callias III|url=http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0104%3Aalphabetic+letter%3DC%3Aentry+group%3D5%3Aentry%3Dcallias-bio-8|author=EE}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Callias 03}} Category:4th-century BC Athenians Category:4th-century BC deaths Category:4th-century BC diplomats Category:5th-century BC Athenians Category:5th-century BC births Category:Alcmaeonidae Category:Ancient Greek LGBTQ people Category:Proxenoi Category:Year of birth unknown --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Callias III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callias_III) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Callias_III?action=history)). 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