Callias
(
Καλλίας) and
Hippon īcus
(
Ἱππόνικος). A noble Athenian family, celebrated for their
wealth. They enjoyed the hereditary dignity of torch-bearer at the Eleusinian Mysteries, and
claimed descent from Triptolemus. The first member of this family of any note was the Callias
who fought at the battle of Marathon, B.C. 490, and was afterwards ambassador from Athens to
Artaxerxes, and, according to some accounts, negotiated a peace with Persia, B.C. 449, on
terms most humiliating to the latter. On his return to Athens he was accused of having taken
bribes, and was condemned to a fine of fifty talents. His son, Hipponicus, was killed at the
battle of Delium in B.C. 424. It was his divorced wife, and not his widow, whom Pericles
married. His daughter Hippareté was married to Alcibiades. Callias, son of this
Hipponicus by the lady who married Pericles, dissipated all his ancestral wealth on sophists,
flatterers, and women. The scene of Xenophon's
Banquet, and also that of
Plato's
Protagoras, is laid at his house.