ABSTRACT
Athenian democracy is generally considered to have reached its peak in the second half of the fifth century BC. The second half of the fifth century was also the age of Aristophanes. Aristophanes was a comic dramatist and a satirist, who saw it as his function, not just to make people laugh, but to look critically at public affairs and public personalities, to show not just the theory of Athenian democracy, but the weaknesses and faults of the way the democratic institutions worked in practice. His plays help people to see what was wrong with Athenian democracy, and by implication they show some of its merits too. Every one of his plays contributes something to this subject. This chapter concentrates on the two earliest that survive: Acharnians, performed in the year 425, and Knights, performed in 424.
