Aristophanes

Aristophanes wrote forty plays starting around 446 BC, eleven of which survive as the finest examples of Old Comedy. His second work, The Babylonians, drew a denunciation from the politician Cleon for slandering Athens; Aristophanes responded by savaging Cleon onstage in The Knights and later plays, directing many himself. Performed at Athens's religious festivals - the City Dionysia and Lenaia - his work featured preposterous premises, explicit language, and biting political satire aimed at real figures like Euripides and Alcibiades. Plato would later single out The Clouds as slander that helped condemn Socrates to death, though other playwrights had mocked the philosopher too. He died around 386 BC, leaving behind what scholars call the most convincing recreation of ancient Athenian life by any writer of the era.