The dates of Aristophanes' birth and death are variously given, but 445–375 B.C. is a possibility. We know that he was considered too young to present his first three plays in his own name: the lost Daiteleis (Banqueters), which won second prize at the Lenaea in 427 B.C., when he would have been only about eighteen; the lost Babylonians, which won second prize in 426 B.C.; and Acharnians, which brought him first prize in 425 B.C. when he was barely twenty. These plays and the four that followed over the next four years are the work of a very young man endowed with the courage to level unrelenting attacks on no less than the head of state—the demagogic Cleon.

[From Roche's Introduction]

The was with Sparta and Boeotia has been dragging on for six years. The countryside of Attica is a shambles and Athens itself is an overcrowded city in which plague has wreaked havoc. The Acharnians, inhabitants of a deme northwest of Athens whose land has been repeatedly ravaged, are thirsting for revenge. Aristophanes' comedy is a plea for peace, whose fruits and comforts are contrasted with the destitution, hardships, and stupidity of war.

[From the introductory material to Roche's translation of Aristophanes' Acharnians]

DICAEOPOLIS: {with rambling thoughts}
The things that have made me eat my heart out—
uncountable as the sands of the dunes . . .
and the things that have made my heart leap with joy—
not more than four . . . let's see . . .

[From Roche's translation of Aristophanes' Acharnians]