He is known to us chiefly from the speech of Demosthenes, in which he was accused of illegality in proposing the usual honour of a crown to the Council of Five Hundred at the expiration of its term of office. Androtion filled several important posts, and during the Social War was appointed extraordinary commissioner to recover certain arrears of taxes. Both Demosthenes and Aristotle (Rhet. iii. 4) speak favourably of his powers as an orator.
He is said to have gone into exile at Megara, and to have composed an Atthis, or annalistic account of Attica from the earliest times to his own days (Pausanias vi. 7; x. 8). It is disputed whether the annalist and orator are identical, but an Androtion who wrote on agriculture is certainly a different person. Professor Gaetano de Sanctis (in L'Attide di Androzione e un papiro di Oxyrhynchos, Turin, 1908) attributes to Androtion, the atthidographer, a 4th_century historical fragment, discovered by B. P. Grenfell and A. S. Hunt (Oxyrhynchus Papyri, vol. v.). Strong arguments against this view are set forth by E. M. Walker in the Classical Review, May 1908.
derives from Androtion it is concluded that Androtion too dated the ostrakismos of Hipparkhos to 488/87; and since Harpokration claims that Androtion connected the introduction of the law with Hipparkhos it follows that Aristotle contradicted Androtion precisely regarding this date.
There is no indication that Androtion knew from documents of Hipparkhos’ archonship in 496/95; or that he had documentary evidence for the date of Hipparkhos’ ostrakismos — which is the most important point.
If one wishes to insist on Androtion as the source for Harpokration’s gloss on Hipparkhos son of Kharmos, and that Androtion can also be encountered in Aristotle’s AP 22.3f., one ought to exercise prudent caution.
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