"Plat. Symp." p. xv. foll.

The occasion was a horse-race[5] at the great Panathenaic festival.[6]
Callias,[7] the son of Hipponicus, being a friend and lover of the boy
Autolycus,[8] had brought the lad, himself the winner of the
pankration,[9] to see the spectacle.

[5] See "Hipparch," ii. 1.

[6] "Held towards the end of July (Hecatombaeon) every year, and with
greater pomp every four years (the third of each Olympiad)."--Gow,
84, 129, n.

[7] Callias. Cobet, "Pros. X." p. 67 foll.; Boeckh, "P. E. A." p. 481.

[8] See Cobet, op. cit. p. 54; Plut. "Lysand." 15 (Clough, iii. 120);
Grote, "H. G." ix. 261.

[9] 420 B.C., al. 421. The date is fixed by the "Autolycus" of
Eupolis. See Athen. v. 216. For the pankration, which comprised
wrestling and boxing, see Aristot. "Rhet." i. S. 14.

As soon as the horse race was over,[10] Callias proceeded to escort
Autolycus and his father, Lycon, to his house in the Piraeus, being
attended also by Niceratus.[11] But catching sight of Socrates along
with certain others (Critobulus,[12] Hermogenes, Antisthenes, and
Charmides), he bade an attendant conduct the party with Autolycus,
whilst he himself approached the group, exclaiming:

[10] See A. Martin, op. cit. p. 265.