'Knights' is a satire on the social and political life of classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War, focusing on Paphlagonian, a comic monstrosity responsible for almost everything that's wrong with the world, and under the guise of whom Aristophanes was targeting the pro-war populist Cleon, who had previously brought a slander prosecution against the playwright. The play relies heavily on allegory and won first prize at the Lenaia festival when it was produced in 424 BC.