Cleon, the populist leader of the pro-war faction in Athens, was a target in all Aristophanes ' early plays and his attempts to prosecute Aristophanes for slander in 426 had merely added fuel to the fire.

Aristophanes however had singled Cleon out for special treatment in his previous play The Knights in 424 and there are relatively few references to him in The Clouds.

Agoracritus presents his transformed master with the Peacetreaties-beautiful girls that Cleon had been keeping locked up in order to prolong the war.

* Pergase: A deme of the Erechthides tribe, not far outside Athens, it was as far as Demosthenes got when a pair of leather shoes that Cleon had sold him began to dissolve ( line 321 )

Cleon was also the president of the Orleans Street Jocks Association and took twenty copies of the record back to the city ; he quickly had to order more.

Hitherto Cleon had only been a vigorous opposition speaker, a trenchant critic and accuser of state officials, but he now came forward as the professed champion and leader of the democracy and, as a result, dominated Athenian politics.

In 427 Cleon gained an evil notoriety by his proposal to put to death the whole male population of Mytilene, which had put itself at the head of a revolt.

But both have been suspected of being prejudiced witnesses: The poet had a grudge against Cleon, who may have accused him before the Council of having ridiculed ( in his lost play Babylonians ) the policy and institutions of his city in the presence of foreigners and at the time of a great national danger.

Thucydides, a man of strong oligarchical inclinations, had also been prosecuted for military incapacity and exiled by a decree proposed by Cleon.

It is therefore possible that Cleon has had injustice done to him in the portraits handed down by these two writers.

Hyperbolus was a frequent target of satire in Aristophanes ' plays, a role previously filled by Cleon, who had died in 422.

When the Spartans asked to discuss these proposals in private, Cleon demanded that they say whatever they had to say in public.

Noting this turn of popular opinion, Cleon, who had been the principal advocate of rejecting the peace offer, claimed that the reports brought back from the scene must be inaccurate.

Although he had no authority to make this offer, the assembly, caught up in the enthusiasm of the moment, went along with him, urging Cleon to back up his words with action.

Reassuming the bold attitude he had taken at the start of the debate, Cleon proclaimed that, with the force he had been given, he would either kill or capture the Spartans within twenty days.

Cleon and Demosthenes met with the Spartan commander Styphon ( Styphon had initially been the third in command, but Epitadas had been killed and his first successor was severely wounded and had been left for dead ).

Brasidas had about 2, 000 hoplites and 300 cavalry, plus some other troops in Amphipolis, but he did not feel that he could defeat Cleon in a pitched battle.

Second, after Athens had completely defeated the Peloponnesian fleet and Sparta could only beg for peace on almost any terms, Cleon persuaded the Athenians to reject the peace offer.

Both had personal conflicts with Cleon, and The Knights is a satirical, allegorical comedy that doesn't even mention Cleon by name.

Diogenes Laertius reports the story that he was prosecuted by Cleon for impiety, but Plutarch says that Pericles sent his former tutor, Anaxagoras, to Lampsacus for his own safety after the Athenians began to blame him for the Peloponnesian war.

Laches is later prosecuted by Cleon for his unsuccessful mission to support Athenian interests in Sicily.

The sausage-seller makes some serious accusations in the first half of the debate: Cleon is indifferent to the war-time sufferings of ordinary people, he has used the war as an opportunity for corruption and he prolongs the war out of fear that he will be prosecuted when peace returns.

Cleon subsequently prosecuted the young playwright for slandering the polis in the presence of foreigners.

Cleon had subsequently prosecuted him for slandering the polis-or possibly the producer, Callistratus, was prosecuted instead.

Cleon subsequently prosecuted the young playwright for slandering the polis in the presence of foreigners.

Aristophanes, or his producer Callistratus, was prosecuted by Cleon for slandering the polis with his previous play, The Babylonians.

* 426 BC: Aristophanes won first prize at the City Dionysia with his second play, The Babylonians ( now lost ), and he was subsequently prosecuted by Cleon for being the author of slanders against the polis.

* Thrace: A region of strategic significance in the Peloponnesian War, the Chorus mentions it in line 288 in relation to the impending trial of one of the ' traitors ' there ( possibly a reference to Thucydides, who had been prosecuted by Cleon the previous year after the Athenian defeat at Amphipolis.

Cleon was a major political figure of the time and through the actions of the characters about which he writes Aristophanes is able to freely criticize the actions of this prominent politician in public and through his comedy.

Modern critics call the Greek playwright Aristophanes one of the best known early satirists: his plays are known for their critical political and societal commentary, particularly for the political satire by which he criticized the powerful Cleon ( as in The Knights ).

Aristophanes ' plays however were generally unsuccessful in shaping public attitudes on important questions, as evidenced by their ineffectual opposition to the Peloponnesian War and to populists such as Cleon.

Cleon's entitlement to these honours is continually mocked by Aristophanes in The Knights and possibly Cleon was sitting in the front row during the performance.

Aristophanes makes numerous accusations against Cleon, many of them comic and some in earnest.

He mocks Cleon for his questionable pedigree but inscriptions indicate that the social origins of demagogues like Cleon were not as obscure as Aristophanes and other comic poets tried to make out.

It is not known if this is the same Theorus that Aristophanes mocks elsewhere as an associate of Cleon.

* Cleonymus: An associate of Cleon and a notorious glutton, he is a frequent target for Aristophanes ' satire.

The character of Cleon is represented by Aristophanes and Thucydides in a very unfavourable light, justifiable considering he instilled a feeling of mistrust within Athens through a kind of Athenian " McCarthyism " caused by the excessive number of informants he employed to keep a watchful eye on the city.

The Athenian leader Cleon is known as a notorious demagogue mainly because of three events described in the writings of Thucydides and Aristophanes.

Cleon was a tradesman — a leather-tanner ; Thucydides and Aristophanes came from the upper classes, predisposed to look down on the commercial classes.

This mention of trouble with Cleon over a play indicates that Dikaiopolis represents Aristophanes ( or possibly his producer, Callistratus ) and maybe the author is in fact the actor behind the mask!

Meanwhile Aristophanes had been engaged in a personal yet very public battle with Cleon.

Aristophanes was already planning his revenge when The Acharnians was produced and it includes hints that he would carve Cleon up in his next play, The Knights.

The Peloponnesian War and Aristophanes ' personal battle with the pro-war populist, Cleon, are the two most important issues that underlie the play.

As in his other early plays, Aristophanes pokes satirical fun at the demagogue Cleon but in The Wasps he also ridicules one of the Athenian institutions that provided Cleon with his power-base: the law courts.

Aristophanes ' plays promote conservative values and they support an honourable peace with Sparta whereas Cleon was a radical democrat and a leader of the pro-war faction.