# Callicles — Dialogues character guide

> Callicles in Dialogues by Plato.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Callicles That, most excellent Callicles, Callicles O Socrates

**First appearance:** 0050-gorgias

## Snapshot

A brash Athenian host who welcomes Socrates into his house and then defends the right of the stronger without apology.

## Who they are

Callicles opens his home to Gorgias and to Socrates, playing the confident host who treats philosophy as a feast to be enjoyed and a fray to be entered. He is impatient with Socratic humility and champions a might-makes-right view of virtue, the kind of opponent who forces Socrates to argue about justice rather than definitions. His bluntness gives the Gorgias its edge, turning a polite gathering into a contest over how one should live.

## In the story

### [Protagoras](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/protagoras)

Present as a host and observer of the debate between Socrates and Protagoras.

### [Gorgias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/gorgias)

A fierce critic of Socratic philosophy, advocating for the natural right of the stronger to rule.

### [Gorgias](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/gorgias)

Addressed by Socrates in the final exhortation, urged to abandon the pursuit of power for the practice of justice.

### [Introduction and Analysis](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/dialogues_se/chapters/introduction-and-analysis)

Referenced as representing the spirit of rebellion against positive laws from the side of nature.

## Links

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