The ‘Unjust’ and ‘Just’ Cities

Acharnians is traditionally labelled one of Aristophanes' ‘peace-plays’, in which the poet bemoans the Athenians’ addiction to war and entices them with a more alluring picture of the benefits of peace. The war certainly forms the background to the action, in that it is the cause of the difficulties of the countryman in the city (32–6) and of the individual in the Assembly (37–9), but there is a danger of distortion of the play if one talks of war and peace as its ‘main’ subject. Is it without significance that the prologue, which, as we shall see, regularly announces more or less openly the main ideas of a play, does not mention peace until Dicaeopolis has finished his more general complaints about the paucity of pleasures in Athens and the disorderly conduct of business in the Assembly? Aristophanes no doubt holds back the mention of peace because he does not wish to let the cat of his comic idea out of the play's bag too soon, but the subjects with which Dicaeopolis begins are not therefore to be ignored. By concentrating on this one aspect of the play, however, there is a danger that its other structural concerns will be obscured.