The Rivalry

The Rivalry between Aristophanes and Cleon

Abstract

This research report entails a brief introduction to the popular political figure of ancient Greece, Cleon, famous playwright of those times, Aristophanes, and the rivalry between these two historical personalities. They belong to Athens, an imperial state in ancient Greece, which had disputes with the conservative Spartans. Cleon was a son of a wealthy tanner, and a well known rhetoric of his times, but was generally considered rude, vulgar and violent by the mass public. He was mainly criticized for his violent nature, execution commands, and pro-war attitude. Aristophanes would tend to hate such kind of politicians and targeted them in his plays. The plays of Aristophanes were humorous but sarcastic and mocking. He would target the political factions, modern educationists, philosophers, musicians and many other personalities that he disliked and considered to be disliked due to their views. Aristophanes, in his plays, targeted the well known politician of his times, Cleon, which made him angry and prompted him to impeach Aristophanes, but luckily Aristophanes escaped this impeachment. Although very little is known regarding the impeachment process, but is known from the facts and the plays of Aristophanes that this dispute continued for long. Later on Cleon died in a battle and Aristophanes would witness the revival of Athens till his death.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Cleon1

Cleon as a Politician2

Aristophanes3

Aristophanes as a playwright3

Rivalry between Cleon and Aristophanes4

Babylonians4

Knights5

Wasps5

Cleon's Reaction5

Criticism of Politicians6

Conclusion7

References9

The Rivalry between Aristophanes and Cleon

Introduction

Cleon

Cleon was the son of a rich tanner an Athenian politician and a military leader who was believed to be involved in the assassination of Pericles, another political leader of those times, in 430 BCs. Athens political system is believed to be democratic at those times. In 426, he declared the Babylonians of Aristophanes as an insult for the state. He was not regarded as a wise military commander and was held responsible for many of the destructions and commanded many execution orders. He led a military voyage to Thraceward in 422 and was later on executed by Brasidas in the outskirts of Amphipolis in a combat (Gomme et. al, 2009).

After the death of Pericles, Cleon ruled as a leading politician and statesman in Athens. He was the person, who by his strategy, commitment, and determination could have won the war, but was killed and the command was handed over to Nikias (Sacks et. al., 2005).

Cleon was extensively criticized for some of his controversial commands as a military leader. His critics argue he was not a good military leader and his commands lacked wisdom and astuteness. He was considered as a cruel military leader who would order execution of innocents though he had some success as a military commander as well.

He was targeted by Aristophanes in his play, the Babylonians, for which he declared Babylonians, as disgrace and insult for the state. It is believed that Aristophanes personally disliked him and attacked him. Cleon was regarded as an effective but rude orator. He was famous for his persuasive speeches in the ...