Charmides was an Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 statesman who flourished during the fourth century BC. Uncle of Plato

Plato

Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...

, Charmides appears in the Platonic dialogue bearing his name (Charmides

Charmides (dialogue)

The Charmides is a dialogue of Plato, in which Socrates engages a handsome and popular boy in a conversation about the meaning of sophrosyne, a Greek word usually translated into English as "temperance", "self-control", or "restraint"...

), the Protagoras

Protagoras (dialogue)

Protagoras is a dialogue of Plato. The traditional subtitle is "or the Sophists, probative". The main argument is between the elderly Protagoras, a celebrated sophist, and Socrates...

, and the Symposium

Symposium (Plato)

The Symposium is a philosophical text by Plato dated c. 385–380 BCE. It concerns itself at one level with the genesis, purpose and nature of love....

, as well as in Xenophon

Xenophon

Xenophon , son of Gryllus, of the deme Erchia of Athens, also known as Xenophon of Athens, was a Greek historian, soldier, mercenary, philosopher and a contemporary and admirer of Socrates...

's Symposium

Symposium (Xenophon)

Xenophon's Symposium records the discussion of Socratesand company at a dinner given by Callias for Autolycus, son of Lycon. Xenophon's Symposium (Συμπόσιον) records the discussion of Socratesand company at a dinner given by Callias for Autolycus, son of Lycon. Xenophon's Symposium (Συμπόσιον)...

, Memorabilia

Memorabilia (Xenophon)

Memorabilia is a collection of Socratic dialogues by Xenophon, a student of Socrates...

, and Hellenica

Hellenica (Xenophon)

Hellenica simply means writings on Greek— Hellenic— subjects. Several histories of fourth-century Greece, written in the mold of Thucydides or straying from it, have borne the conventional Latin title Hellenica...

. A wealthy orphan raised by his first cousin, Critias

Critias

Critias , born in Athens, son of Callaeschrus, was an uncle of Plato, and a leading member of the Thirty Tyrants, and one of the most violent. He was an associate of Socrates, a fact that did not endear Socrates to the Athenian public. He was noted in his day for his tragedies, elegies and prose...

, his property was confiscated for his role in profaning the Eleusinian Mysteries

Eleusinian Mysteries

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiation ceremonies held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at Eleusis in ancient Greece. Of all the mysteries celebrated in ancient times, these were held to be the ones of greatest importance...

 in 415 BC. He is commonly listed as one of the Thirty Tyrants

Thirty Tyrants

The Thirty Tyrants were a pro-Spartan oligarchy installed in Athens after its defeat in the Peloponnesian War in 404 BC. Contemporary Athenians referred to them simply as "the oligarchy" or "the Thirty" ; the expression "Thirty Tyrants" is due to later historians...

 who ruled Athens following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War

Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War, 431 to 404 BC, was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases...

, but evidence points only to his having been one of the ten men appointed by the Thirty to govern the Piraeus

Piraeus

Piraeus is a city in the region of Attica, Greece. Piraeus is located within the Athens Urban Area, 12 km southwest from its city center , and lies along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf....

. He was killed in the Battle of Munichia in 403 BC when the democrats returned to Athens.

This Charmides was probably not the same man as the father of the great Athenian sculptor Phidias

Phidias

Phidias or the great Pheidias , was a Greek sculptor, painter and architect, who lived in the 5th century BC, and is commonly regarded as one of the greatest of all sculptors of Classical Greece: Phidias' Statue of Zeus at Olympia was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World...

, also named Charmides.