Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition/Andocides

ANDOCIDES, a Greek orator and diplomatist, was born at Athens in 467, and died about 391 B.C. After holding a command for a time in the Athenian fleet, he was engaged in various embassies to foreign states. In 415 he was implicated with Alcibiades in the charge of mutilating the busts of Hermes, suspicion being specially roused against him from a large bust near his house having been almost the only one that was left entire. On the information he gave against others, they were put to death; and Aiidocides himself was deprived of his rights of citizenship, and went into exile. He returned to Athens on three different occasions, and though he was as many times driven again into banishment, he appears to have held a position of trust and influence in the city from 403 to 393. Three orations of his—De Reditis, De Mysteriis, and De Pace are extant, which are of great historical value. The authority of a fourth, Contra Alcibiadem, which has been attributed to him, is disputed on what appear to be good grounds. Andocides was one of the ten Attic orators, whose lives were written by Plutarch.