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DICAEOPOLIS
Here is the block; and, though I am but a very sorry speaker, I wish nevertheless to talk freely of the Lacedaemonians and without the protection of my buckler. Yet I have many reasons for fear. I know our rustics; they are delighted if some braggart comes, and rightly or wrongly, loads both them and their city with praise and flattery; they do not see that such toad-eaters1 are traitors, who sell them for gain. As for the old men, I know their weakness; they only seek to overwhelm the accused with their votes.2 Nor have I forgotten how Cleon treated me because of my comedy last year;3 he dragged me before the Senate and there he uttered endless slanders against me; 'twas a tempest of abuse, a deluge of lies. Through what a slough of mud he dragged me! I almost perished. Permit me, therefore, before I speak, to dress in the manner most likely to draw pity.

1 Orators in the pay of the enemy.

2 Satire on the Athenians' addiction to law-suits.

3 The Babylonians. Cleon had denounced Aristophanes to the Senate for having scoffed at Athens before strangers, many of whom were present at the performance. The play is now lost.

Aristophanes. Acharnians. The Eleven Comedies. Anonymous. New York. Liveright. 192?.
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