The youths, including Hippothales and Ctesippus, are assmbled outside of a palaestra, where they spend time in words. During this introductory chat we come to appreciate one feature of Socratic dialectic, namely how Plato's Socrates sets up conversations in advance. We should not apply this feature to Socrates in every dialogue, but it is certainly a feature in the later early dialogues, and some middle ones (e.g., Hippias Minor, Hippias Major, Politeia, Phaedrus, Symposium - not in. e.g., Euthyphro, Laches, Phaedo, where Socrates does control the conversation, but does not initiate the discussion or put himself in the way of an anticipated discussion).
