A'ndrocles
(
Ἀνδροκλῆς), an Athenian demagogue and orator.
He was a contemporary and enemy of Alcibiades, against whom he brought forward witnesses, and spoke very vehemently in the affair concerning the mutilation of the Hermae, B. C. 415. (
Plut. Alc. 19; Andocid.
de Myster. § 27.)
It was chiefly owing to his exertions that Alcibiades was banished.
After this event, Androcles was for a time at the head of the democratical party; but during the revolution of B. C. 411, in which the democracy was overthrown, and the oligarchical government of the Four Hundred was established, Androcles was put to death. (
Thuc. 8.65.) Aristotle (
Aristot. Rh. 2.23) has preserved a sentence from one of Androcles' speeches, in which he used an incorrect figure.
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