[Y]ou possess all the attributes of a demagogue; a screeching, horrible voice, a perverse, crossgrained nature and the language of the market-place. In you all is united which is needful for governing.

Thus the political conservatism of the plays might reflect the views of the wealthiest section of society on whose generosity comic dramatists depended for the success of their plays. The conservative views expressed in the plays might therefore reflect the attitudes of a dominant group in an unrepresentative audience.

These together with fragments of some of his other plays provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy and they are used to define the genre. 446 BC – ca. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.