24 ALCIBIADES.

Thucydides has omitted to name the informers, but others mention Dioclides and Teucer, Amongst whom is Phrj"- nichus, the comic poet, in whom we find the following: — " dearest Hermes ! only do take care, And mind you do not miss your footing there ; Should you get hurt, occasion may arise For a new Dioclides to tell lies." To which he makes Mercury return this answer : — " I will so, for I feel no inclination To reward Teucer for more information." The truth is, his accusers alleged nothing that was cer- tain or solid against him. One of them, being asked how he knew the men who defaced the images, replying, that he saw them b}' the light of the moon, made a pal- pable mis-statement, for it was just new moon when the fact was committed. This made all men of understanding- cry out upon the thing ; but the people were as eager as ever to receive further accusations, nor was their first heat at all abated, but they instantly seized and impris- oned every one that was accused. Amongst those who were detained in prison for their trials was Andocides the orator, whose descent the historian Hellanicus de- duces from Ulysses. He was alwaj's supposed to hate popular government, and to support oligarchy. The chief ground of his being suspected of defacing the images was because the great Mercury, which stood near his house, and was an ancient monument of the tribe ^geis, was almost the only statue of all the remarkable ones, which remained entire. For this cause, it is now called the Mercury of Andocides, all men giving it that name, though the inscription is evidence to the contrary. It happened that Andocides, amongst the rest who were prisoners upon the same account, contracted particular