Callias was the head of a wealthy Athenian family, and fought at the battle of Marathon (490) in priestly attire.

Some time after the death of Cimon, probably about 445 BC, he was sent to Susa to conclude with Artaxerxes I, king of Persia, a treaty of peace afterwards misnamed the peace of Cimon. Cimon had nothing to do with it, and he was totally opposed to the idea of peace with Persia.

At all events Callias's mission does not seem to have been successful; he was indicted for high treason on his return to Athens and sentenced to a fine of fifty talents.

His son, Hipponicus was also a military commander.

See Herodotus vii. 151; Diod. Sic. xii. 4; Demosthenes, De Falsa Legatione, p. 428; Grote recognizes the treaty as a historical fact, History of Greece, ch. xlv., while Curtius, bk. iii. ch. ii., denies the conclusion of any formal treaty; see also Ed. Meyer, Forschungen., ii.; JB Bury in Hermathena, xxiv. (1898).