The Horsemen appeared in Lenaea in 424 BC. and won first prize. It was the first time that Aristophanes directed his own work. The Horsemen is a comic political allegory aimed at the well-known demagogue of the time, Cleon, who after the death of Pericles gained a strong position in the public life of the place. Here he is presented as the new favored caretaker of the Municipality -of the personified people of Athens- with the name Paphlagonas. The older slaves of the Municipality, Demosthenes and Nicaea, who suffer from the mistreatment of the barbarian Paphlagonas, find his replacement in the face of a passing butcher.