Aristophanes was born in 445 BCE in Classical Athens. An Athenian playwright of the Old Comedy, Aristophanes is the best-known comic dramatist of ancient Greece, and eleven of his plays survive. His comedies, such as The Clouds, The Wasps, The Birds, Lysistrata and The Frogs, mixed fantasy, obscenity and political satire, mocking public figures like Cleon and Socrates and the war with Sparta. Lysistrata, in which the women of Greece go on a sex strike to end the war, is still frequently staged. His plays provide a valuable record of Athenian life and political debate in the late fifth century BCE.
Before and after
- c. 451 BCEThe Twelve Tables, Rome's first written law
- from 450 BCE to 15 CELa Tène culture
- c. 449 BCEConstruction of the Temple of Hephaestus
- from 448 BCE to 433 BCEConstruction of the Parthenon begins
- 445 BCEBirth of Aristophanes
- from 431 BCE to 404 BCEPeloponnesian War
- from c. 430s BCE to 470sStatue of Zeus at Olympia
- c. 430s BCEHerodotus writes the Histories
- c. 430 BCEBirth of Xenophon
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- from c. 1,200 BCE to 150 BCEPhoenician script
- c. 750s BCEThe Homeric epics are composed
- 196 BCERosetta Stone
- 42 CEOrigins of Coptic Orthodox Church
The era
This moment belongs to the Ancient civilizations (3,200 BCE to 500 CE), writing, cities and empires. You can also browse everything in the 5th century BCE.