After this preface, the dialogue proper begins. The Panathenaic Games are underway and Kallias is returning with Autolykos, the recent victor in the young men's pankration, from a horse race that they had just watched. Nikeratos and Lykon are also present. They are on their way to Kallias' house in the Piraeus when they come across Socrates and a few of his companions including Kritoboulos, Hermogenes, Antisthenes and Charmides. Kallias asks them all to join him at a symposium which he is hosting for Autolykos and his father, Lykon. Kallias promises to show them that he has become a man of much consequence, although he had kept the others ignorant of his ability to say many wise things. They politely decline at first, but ultimately accept the offer because Kallias' feelings seem hurt. They all go off, some to exercise, others to bathe in addition, and later reconvene at Kallias' house(1.7).