Andro'tion
（
Ἀνδροτίων), an Athenian orator, was a son of Andron, a pupil of Isocrates, and a contemporary of Demosthenes. (Suid.
s. v.）
To which of the political parties of the time he belonged is uncertain; but Ulpian (
ad Demosth. c. Androt. p. 594) states, that he was one of the leading demagogues of his time.
He seems to have been a particularly skilful and elegant speaker. (Schol.
ad Hermogen. p. 401.) Among the orations of Demosthenes there is one against our Androtion, which Demosthenes delivered. at the age of twenty-seven (Gellius,
15.28;
Plut. Dem. 15), and in which he imitated the elegant style of Isocrates and Androtion.
The subject of the speech is this: Androtion had induced the people to make a psephisma in a manner contrary to law or custom. Euctemon and Diodorus came forward to accuse him, and proposed that he should be disfranchised, partly for having proposed the illegal psephisma, and partly for his bad conduct in other respects. Demosthenes wrote the oration against Androtion for Diodorus, one of the accusers, who delivered it. (Liban.
Argum. ad Demosth. Androt.) The issue of the contest is not known.
Works
Orations
The orations of Androtion have perished, with the exception of a fragment which is preserved and praised by Aristotle. (
Rhet. 3.4.)
Possible Works
ascribed by some to Androtion
Some modern critics, such as Wesseling (
ad Diod. 1.29), Coraes (
ad Isocrat. ii. p. 40), and Orelli (
ad Isocrat. de Antid. p. 248), ascribe to Androtion the Eroticus which is usually printed among the orations of Demosthenes; but their arguments are not satisfactory. (Westermann,
Quaest. Demosth. ii. p. 81.)
Atthis
There is an Androtion, the author of an Atthis, whom some regard as the same person as the orator.
Further Information
Zosim.
Vit. Isocr. p. xi. ed. Dind.
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L.S]
