Callias III.

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Kallias ( Greek Καλλίας Kallías ; * around 450 BC; † 371 BC ) was a wealthy citizen of Athens. To distinguish between his grandfather ( Kallias II. ) And his great-great-grandfather (Kallias I.) he is also called Kallias III. called. His grandmother was Kimon's half-sister Elpinike . His father Hipponikos was considered the "richest man in Greece". His mother was married to Pericles , his sister to Alcibiades .

Kallias wasted his millionaire inherited fortune at a young age on an extravagant lifestyle of easy girls, supplicants, and parasites. But he also showed interest in developments in art, which he generously supported, and in philosophical questions. In his house, the Platonic dialogue played Protagoras and the Symposium of Xenophon . Xenophon reports that Callias spent a lot of money on lessons from the sophists Protagoras , Gorgias and Prodikos . Socrates was also one of those people whose company Callias appreciated. "Callias," said Socrates in his defense speech, "has spent more money on sophists than all the other Athenians put together." He tried to compensate for these losses through various financially favorable marriages and deals with the family-owned silver mines.

In 406 he was the leading archon of Athens and in 393/2 commander of the Athenian troops in Corinth . Until shortly before his death he was involved in the peace negotiations with Sparta . It is believed that Callias died penniless and in dire poverty.

literature

  • Luc Brisson : Callias d'Alopékè. In: Richard Goulet (ed.): Dictionnaire des philosophes antiques. Volume 2, CNRS Éditions, Paris 1994, ISBN 2-271-05195-9 , pp. 163-167

Remarks

  1. Andokides , “On the Mysteries” 130.
  2. ^ Plato, Apology 20a.