Callias
(Καλλίας), a son of the Heracleid king Temenus, who, in conjunction with his brothers, caused his father to be killed by some hired persons, because he preferred Deiphontes, the husband of his daughter Hyrnetho, to his sons. (Apollod. 2.8.5.) [L.S]
(Καλλίας, Ἱππόνικος), a noble Athenian family, celebrated for their wealth, the heads of which, from the son of Phaenippus downwards [No. 2], received these names alternately in successive generations. (Aristoph. Av. . 283; Schol. ad loc.; Perizon. ad Ael. V. H. 14.16.) They enjoyed the hereditary dignity of torch-bearer at the Eleusinian mysteries, and claimed descent from Triptolemus. (Xen. Hell. 6.3.6.)
2. Callias I., son of Phaenippus and probably nephew of the above, is mentioned by Herodotus (6.121) as a strong opponent of Peisistratus, and as the only man in Athens who ventured to buy the tyrant's property on each occasion of his expulsion. On the same authority, if indeed the chapter be not an interpolation (6.122; see Larcher, ad loc.), we learn, that he spent much money in keeping horses, was a conqueror at the Olympic and Pythian games, at the former in B. C. 564 (Schol. ad Aristoph. Av. 283), and gave large dowries to his daughters, allowing them--a good and wise departure from the usual practice--to marry any of the Athenians they pleased.
4. Callias II., son of No. 3, was present in his priestly dress at the battle of Marathon; and the story runs that, on the rout of the enemy, a Persian, claiming his protection, pointed out to him a treasure buried in a pit, and that he slew the man and appropriated the money. Hence the surname λακκόπλουτος (Plut. Aristeid. 5; Schol. ad Aristoph. Nub. 65; Hesych. and Suid. s. v. λακκόπλουτος), which, however, we may perhaps rather regard as having itself suggested the tale, and as having been originally, like βαθύπλουτος, expressive of the extent of the family's wealth. (Böckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens, b. iv. ch. 3.) His enemies certainly were sufficiently malignant, if not powerful; for Plutarch (Aristeid. 25), on the authority of Aeschines the Socratic, speaks of a capital prosecution instituted against him on extremely weak grounds. Aristeides, who was his cousin, was a witness on the trial, which must therefore have tatken place before B. C. 468, the probable date of Aristeides' death. In Herodotus (7.151) Callias is mentioned as ambassador from Athens to Artaxerxes; and this statement we might identify with that of Diodorus, who ascribes to the victories of Cimon, through the negotiation of Callias, B. C. 449, a peace with Persia on terms most humiliating to the latter, were it not that extreme suspicion rests on the whole account of the treaty in question. (Paus. 1.8; Diod. 12.4; Wesselling, ad loc.; Mitford's Greece, ch. xi. sec. 3, note 11; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. iii. pp. 37, 38, and the authorities there referred to; Böckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens, b. iii. ch. 12, b. iv. ch. 3.) Be this as it may, he did not escape impeachment after his return on the charge of having taken bribes, and was condemned to a fine of 50 talents, more than 12,000l., being a fourth of his whole property. (Dem. de Fals. Leg. p. 428; Lys. pro Aristoph. Bon. § 50.)
6. Callias III., son of Hipponicus III. by the lady who married Pericles (Plut. Per. 24), was notorious for his extravagance and profligacy. We have seen, that he must have succeeded to his fortune in B. C. 424, which is not perhaps irreconcileable with the mention of him in the "Flatterers" of Eupolis, the comic poet, B. C. 421, as having recently entered on the inheritance. (Athen. 5.218c.) In B. C. 400, he was engaged in the attempt to crush Andocides by a charge of profanation, in having placed a supplicatory bough on the altar of the temple at Eleusis during the celebration of the mysteries (Andoc. de Myst. § 110, &c.); and, if we may believe the statement of the accused, the bough was placed there by Callias himself, who was provoked at having been thwarted by Andocides in a very disgraceful and profligate attempt. In B. C. 392, we find him in command of the Athenian heavy-armed troops at Corinth on the occasion of the famous defeat of the Spartan Mora by Iphicrates. (Xen. Hell. 4.5.13.) He was hereditary proxenus of Sparta, and, as such, was chosen as one of the envoys empowered to negotiate peace with that state in B. C. 371, on which occasion Xenophon reports an extremely absurd and self-glorifying speech of his (Hell. 6.3.2, &c., comp. 5.4.22.) A vain and silly dilettante, an extravagant and reckless profligate, he dissipated all his ancestral wealth on sophists, flatterers, and women; and so early did these propensities appear in him, that he was commonly spoken of, before his father's death, as the "evil genius" (ἀλιτήριος) of his family. (Andoc. de Myst. § 130, &c.; comp. Aristoph. Frogs 429, Av. 284. &c.; Schol. ad Aristoph. Ran. 502; Athen. 4.169a.; Ael. VH 4.16.) The scene of Xenophon's "Banquet," and also that of Plato's "Protagoras," is laid at his house; and in the latter especially his character is drawn with some vivid sketches as a trifling dilettante, highly amused with the intellectual fencing of Protagoras and Socrates. (See Plat. Protag. pp. 335, 338; comp. Plat. Apol. p. 20a., Theaet. p. 165a., Cratyl. p. 391.) He is said to have ultimately reduced himself to absolute beggary, to which the sarcasm of Iphicrates (Aristot. Rh. 3.2.10) in calling him μητραγύρτης instead of δᾳδοῦχος obviously refers; and he died at last in actual want of the common necessaries of life. (Athen. 12.537c.; Lys. pro Aristoph. Bon. § 50.) Aelian's erroneous account of his committing suicide is clearly nothing but gossip from Athenaeus by memory. (Ael. VH 4.23; Perizon. ad loc.) He left a legitimate son named Hipponicus. (Andoc. de Myst. § 126, which speech, from § 110 to § 131, has much reference to the profligacy of Callias.) [E.E]
(Καλλίας).
1. A soothsayer of the sacred Elean family of the Iamidae. (Pind. Olymp. vi.), who, according to the account of the Crotonians, came over to their ranks from those of Sybaris, when he saw that the sacrifices foreboded destruction to the latter, B. C. 510. His services to Crotona were rewarded by an allotment of land, of which his descendants were still in possession when Herodotus wrote. (Hdt. 5.44, 45.)
2. A wealthy Athenian, who, on condition of marrying Cimon's sister, Elpinice, paid for him the fine of fifty talents which had been imposed on Miltiades. (Plut. Cim. 4; Nepos, Cim. 1.) He appears to have been unconnected with the nobler family of Callias and Hipponicus, the δᾳδοῦχοι. It seems likely that his wealth arose from mining, and that it was a son or grandson of his who discovered a method of preparing cinnabar, B. C. 405. (Böckh, Dissert. on the Mines of Laurion, § 23.)
3. Son of Calliades, was appointed with four colleagues to the command of the second body of Athenian forces sent against Perdiccas and the revolted Chalcidians, B. C. 432, and was slain in the battle against Aristeus near Potidaea. (Thuc. 1.61-63; Diod. 12.37.) This is probably the same Callias who is mentioned as a pupil of Zeno the Eleatic, from whose instructions, purchased for 100 minae, he is said to have derived much real advantage, σοφὸς καὶ ἐλλόγιμος γέγονεν. (Pseudo-Plat. Alcib. i. p. 119; Buttmann, ad loc.)
4. The Chalcidian, son of Mnesarchus, together with his brother Taurosthenes, succeeded his father in the tyranny of Chalcis, and formed an alliance with Philip of Macedon in order to support himself against Plutarchus, tyrant of Eretria, or rather with the view of extending his authority over the whole of Euboea--a design which, according to Aeschines, he covered under the disguise of a plan for uniting in one league the states of the island, and establishing a general Euboean congress at Chalcis. Plutarchus accordingly applied to Athens for aid, which was granted in opposition to the advice of Demosthenes, and an army was sent into Euboea under the command of Phocion, who defeated Callias at Tamynae, B. C. 350. (Aesch. c. Ctes. §§ 85-88, de Fals. Leg. § 180; Dem. de Pac. § 5; Plut. Phoc. 12.) After this, Callias betook himself to the Macedonian court, where he was for some time high in the favour of the king; but, having in some way offended him, he withdrew to Thebes, in the hope of gaining her support in the furtherance of his views. Breaking, however, with the Thebans also, and fearing an attack both from them and from Philip, he applied to Athens, and through the influence of Demosthenes not only obtained alliance, and an acknowledgment of the independence of Chalcis, but even induced the Athenians to transfer to that state the annual contributions (συντάξεις) from Oreus and Eretria, Callias holding out great promises (apparently never realized) of assistance in men and money from Achaia, Megara, and Euboea. This seems to have been in B. C. 343, at the time of Philip's projected attempt on Ambracia. Aeschines of course ascribes his rival's support of Callias to corruption; but Demosthenes may have thought that Euboea, united under a strong government, might serve as an effectual barrier to Philip's ambition. (Aesch. c. Ctes. § 89, &c.; Dem. Philipp. 3.85; Thirlwall's Greece, vol. vi. p. 19.) In B. C. 341, the defeat by Phocion of the Macedonian party in Eretria and Oreus under Cleitarchus and Philistides gave the supremacy in the island to Callias. (Dem. de Cor. §§ 86, 99, &c.; Philipp. 3. §§ 23, 75, 79; Diod. 16.74; Plut. Dem. 17.) Callias seems to have been still living in B. C. 330, the date of the orations on "the Crown." See Aesch. c. Ctes. §§ 85, 87, who mentions a proposal of Demosthenes to confer on him and his brother Taurosthenes the honour of Athenian citizenship.
5. One of the Thespian ambassadors, who appeared at Chalcis before the Roman commissioners, Marcius and Atilius, to make a surrender of their city, renouncing the alliance of Perseus, B. C. 172. In common with the deputies from all the Boeotian towns, except Thebes, they were favourably received by the Romans, whose object was to dissolve the Boeotian confederacy,--an object accomplished in the same year. (Plb. 27.1, 2; Liv. 42.43, 44; Clinton, Fast. ii. p. 80, iii. p. 398.) [E.E]
(Καλλίας), literary.
1. A comic poet, was according to Suidas (s. v.) a son of Lysimachus, and bore the name of Schoenion because his father was a rope or basket maker (σχοινοπλόκος). He belonged to the old Attic comedy, for Athenaeus (x. p. 453) states, that he lived shortly before Strattis, who appears to have commenced his career as a comic poet about B. C. 412. From the Scholiast on Aristophanes (Aristoph. Kn. 526) we further learn, that Callias was an emulator of Cratinus. It is, therefore, probable that he began to come before the public prior to B. C. 424; and if it could be proved that he was the same person as Calliades [Calliades], he would have lived at least till B. C. 402. We still possess a few fragments of his comedies, and the names of six are preserved in Suidas, viz. Αἰγύπτιος, Ἀταλάντη (Zenob. 4.7), Κύκλωπες (perhaps alluded to by Athen. 2.57, and Clem. Alex. Strom. vi. p. 264), Πεδῆται (Athen. 8.344; Schol. ad Aristoph. Av. 31, 151; D. L. 2.18), Βάτραχοι, and Σχολάξοντες. Whether he is the same as the Callias whom Athenaeus (vii. p. 672, x. pp. 448, 453) calls the author of a γραμματικὴ τραγῳδία, is uncertain. (Comp. Athen. iv. pp. 140, 176, vii. p. 300, xii. pp. 524, 667; Pollux, 7.113; Etymol. M. s. v. Εἶναι; Meineke, Hist. Crit. Com. Gr. p. 213, &c.)
2. Of Argos, a Greek poet, the author of an epigram upon Polycritus. (Anth. Graec. 11.232; Brunck, Anal. ii. p. 3.)
3. Of Mytilene in Lesbos, a Greek grammarian who lived before the time of Strabo (xiii. p.618), who mentions him among the celebrated persons born in Lesbos, and states that he wrote commentaries on the poems of Sappho and Alcaeus. (Comp. Athen. 3.85.)
4. Of Syracuse, a Greek historian who wrote a great work on the history of Sicily. He lived, as Josephus (c. Apion. 1.3) expresses it, long after Philistus, but earlier than Timaeus. From the nature of his work it is clear that he was a contemporary of Agathocles, whom, however, the historian survived, as he mentioned the death of the tyrant. This work is sometimes called τὰδ τερὶ Ἀγαθοκλέα, or περὶ Ἀγαθοκλέα ἱστορίαι, and sometimes also by Roman writers "Historia de Rebus Siculis." (Athen. 12.542; Aelian, Ael. NA 16.28; Schol. ad Apollon. Rhod. 3.41; Macr. 5.19; Dionys. A. R. 1.42; Fest. s. v. Romam.) It embraced the history of Sicily during the reign of Agathocles, from B. C. 317 to 289, and consisted of twenty-two books. (Diod. xxi. Exc. 12. p. 492.) The very few fragments which we possess of the work do not enable us to form an opinion upon it, but Diodorus (xxi. Exc. p. 561) states, that Callias was corrupted by Agathocles with rich bribes; that he sacrificed the truth of history to base gain; and that he went even so far in distorting the truth as to convert the crimes and the violation of the laws human and divine, of which Agathocles was guilty, into praiseworthy actions. (Comp. Suid. s. v. Καλλίας.)
There is another Callias of Syracuse, a contemporary of Demosthenes, who occupied himself with oratory, but who is mentioned only by Plutarch. (Dem. 5, Vit. X Orat. p. 844c.) [L.S]
an architect of the island of Aradus, contemporary with Demetrius Poliorcetes. (Vitr. 10.16.5.) [W.I]
(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.
- Olympic victor: Paus. 5.9.3, Paus. 6.6.1
- acting with Croton in its war with Sybaris: Hdt. 5.44
- a noted Athenian champion of freedom and enemy of Pisistratus: Hdt. 6.121
- son of Hipponicus; an envoy to Xerxes' son Artoxerxes in 448 B.C.: Hdt. 7.151
- peace of: Paus. 1.8.2
- dedicates image of Aphrodite: Paus. 1.23.2, and image of Athena: Paus. 1.26.4
- dedicates statue of horse at Delphi: Paus. 10.18.1
- with his brothers hires men to murder his father: Apollod. 2.8.4