Plutarch's morals. Part 4. translated from the Greek by several hands.

ANDOCIDES II.

ANdocides, the Son of that Leogoras, who once made a Peace with the Athenians against the Lacedaemo∣nians, by Descent a Cydathenian or Phucian, of a Noble Fa∣mily, and as Hellanicus tells us, if we may believe him, the Off-spring of Mercury himself: for the Race of Heraulds belong to him: and on this account he was chosen by the People to go with Glaucen, with twenty Sail of Ships to aid the Corcyreans against the Corinthians. But in pro∣cess of time, being accused of some notorious Acts of Impiety; as that he was of the Number of those who defaced the Statues of Mercury, and divulg'd the Sacred Mysteries of Ceres; and withal, being accused of Wild∣ness and Intemperance, and that he had been seen in the Night in Masquerade to break one of the Statues of Mercury; and when he refus'd to bring his Servant to Examination, whom his Accusers named, he was not only convicted of the first, but also was very much sus∣pected to be guilty of the second Crime too. Which later Action was laid to his Charge soon after the Ex∣pedition of the Navy sent by the Athenians into Sicily. For as Cratippus informs us, when the Corinthians sent the Leontines and Aegesians to the Athenians, who were to lend them Assistance in cognito, they in the Night defaced and brake all the Statues of Mercury which were erected in the Market. To which Offence, Andocides having added another, that of divulging the Mysteries of Ceres, he was brought to his Tryal, but was acquit∣ted, on condition he wou'd discover who were Compani∣ons with him in the Crime. In which Affair, being very diligent, he found out who they were that had been guilty, and among the rest, he discover'd his own Father. He prov'd all guilty, and caus'd them all to be put to Death, only his Father, whom he sav'd,

though in Prison, by a Promise of some eminent Ser∣vice he wou'd do to the Common-wealth. Nor did he fail of what he promis'd; for Leogoras accused many who had acted in several Matters against the Interest of the Common-wealth, and for this was acquitted of his own Crime.

Now, though Andocides was very much esteemed of for his Skill in the Management of the Affairs of the Common-wealth; yet his Inclinations led him rather to Trafick by Sea: and by this means he contracted Friendship with the Kings of Cyprus, and other great Princes. At which time he privily stole a Damsel of the City, the Daughter of Aristides, and his own Neece, and sent her as a Present to the King of Cyprus: But suspecting he shou'd be call'd in question for it, he again stole her from Cyprus, for which the King of Cyprus took him and clapt him up in Prison; whence he brake loose and return'd to Athens, just at that time when the four hundred Conspirators had u∣surped the Government. By whom being confined, he again escaped, when the Power of Governing was lodg'd in a few. But when the thirty Tyrants were upper∣most, he withdrew to Elis, and there lived, till Thrasy∣bulus and his Faction returned into the City, and then he also repair'd thither. And after some time, being sent into Lacedaemonia to conciliate a Peace, he was a∣gain suspected to be faulty, and on that Suspicion ba∣nished.

He himself has given an account of all these Trans∣actions in his Orations which he has left behind him. For some of 'em treat of the Crime of him who shakes off his Religion by a Violation of its Laws, as he did when he divulg'd the Mysteries of Ceres: Others represent a convicted Person begging Mercy of the Judge: and there is one extant, wherein he makes a Discovery of the wicked Practises of others, and one to

Phaeax, and one concerning Peace. He flourished at the same time with Socrates the Philosopher; he was born in the seventy eighth Olympiate, when Theogenides was Governour of Athens, so that he shou'd seem to be almost an hundred years before Lysias. There is an I∣mage of Mercury, call'd from his Name Andocideum, being given by the House of Aegis, and it stood near the House where Andocides dwelt. This Andocides him∣self was at the Charge of a publick Revel, in memory of the Name and House of Aegeis, at the Celebration of the* 1.1 Dithyram∣bicks. And having gain'd a Victo∣ry, he erected a Tripos on an As∣cent opposite to the Country of Peri∣nus Selinus. His Stile in his Orations is plain and easie, without the least Affectation, or any thing of a Figura∣tive Ornament.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Feasts or Songs dedicated to Bac∣chus.