Laches had a distinguished military career before and after the meeting portrayed by Plato. In 427, previous to the time of the encounter with Socrates, Laches, along with a colleague Charoedes, commanded a fleet of twenty ships that sailed to Sicily in response to the Leontine embassy Gorgias participated in (ch. 10*).[22] When Charoedes died in battle, Laches became the sole commander of the force. In 426 he won a victory against the city of Messene, causing that city to come over to the Athenian side and giving the Athenians control of the straits of Messene.[23] Thereafter, Laches made an unsuccessful attack on the town of Inessa and raided Locris.[24]
In 422, after the time of the meeting with Socrates, Cleon accused Laches of embezzling money during the Sicilian campaign, in an attempt to discredit him. It was a typical political trial, disguised as something else: Cleon was the leader of the pro-war faction, Laches a co-leader, together with Nicias, of the peace faction.[25] Aristophanes made fun of the trial in The Wasps, in which several dogs accuse another dog of stealing a Sicilian cheese.[26] Laches was acquitted, as was Aristophanes’ canine defendant. Three years after the Peace of Nicias, which he helped broker,[27] in 418, Laches was killed at the battle of Mantinea in the Peloponnesus.[28]
As to Nicias, we will meet him again (ch. 17*). His later story may affect our understanding of Plato’s dialogue. As for Lysimachus’ son Aristides, we are told that he followed Socrates for a time with beneficial results, but then fell into bad company, while Melesias’ son Thucydides also followed Socrates.[29]
What is clear, in any case, is that Socrates exemplified courage—and wisdom—on the battlefield and off.
[22].Thucydides 3.86; Diodorus Siculus 12.53-54.
[23].Thucydides 3.90.
[24].Thucydides 3.103.
[25].In particular, Laches had proposed the one-year truce that Brasidas violated; see n. 1* above.
[26].Aristophanes Wasps 836-43, 891-997.
[27].Thucydides 5.19.2.
[28].Thucydides 5.74.3, 5.61.1.
[29]. Plato Theaetetus 150e-151a; in a later, more apocryphal version, Thucydides son of Melesias also associated with Socrates: ps.Plato Theages 130a-e. See Nails 2002:49-50, 292.