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Andocidēs (c.440–c.390 BC), one of the earlier Attic orators and member of an ancient aristocratic Athenian family which traced its descent from the god Hermes. He was accused of sacrilege, notably in sharing in the mutilation of the Hermae in 415, and in order to secure his own immunity and, he claimed, to save his father, who had been implicated, confessed to his involvement. Subsequently he repudiated the confession, but at the time his account was accepted by the Athenians. He retired from Athens and began to trade as a merchant when a decree was passed limiting his rights as a citizen. We possess three of his speeches, the first, ‘On his Return’, delivered in the ecclesia, probably in 410, when he unsuccessfully pleaded for the removal of the limitation on his rights. The second, ‘On the Mysteries’, was made in 399 when, having been restored to full public rights under the amnesty of 403, he successfully defended himself against a charge of still being subject to the former limitation (the sixth speech in the works of Lysias is apparently part of the prosecution); it is interesting as an eye-witness account of an intriguing event in Athenian history. His third speech, ‘On the Peace’, is a political discourse urging peace with Sparta in 390, the fourth year of the Corinthian War. The Athenians rejected the peace, and Andocides retired into exile and oblivion. He was not, like the other orators, a trained or professional rhetorician, but a man of ability and shrewdness, who excelled in a natural and persuasive eloquence.

(ăndŏs'ĭdēz) , c.440–390 B.C., one of the Ten Attic Orators (see oratory). In 415 B.C. he was accused of mutilating the hermae (sacred pillars topped by busts of the gods) and, in association with Alcibiades, of other sacrilege. He went into exile, and one of his speeches was a plea to be restored to citizenship. After he returned in 403, he was again accused (399) of sacrilege and again successfully defended himself.

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