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196 whom we already know as one of the most conceited and insolent of the demagogues of Athens.

The play of the Birds is "the everlasting allegory of foolish sham and flimsy ambition." It was aimed particularly at the ambitious Sicilian schemes of Alcibiades; for at the time the play appeared, the Athenian army was before Syracuse, and elated by good news daily arriving, the Athenians were building the most gorgeous air-castles, and indulging in the most extravagant day-dreams of universal dominion.

In the Wasps, the poet satirizes the proceedings in the Athenian law-courts, by showing how the great citizen-juries, numbering sometimes five or six hundred, were befooled by the demagogues. But Aristophanes was something more than a master of mere mirth-provoking satire and ridicule: many of the choruses of his pieces are inexpressibly tender and beautiful.

Poetry is the first form of literary expression among all peoples. So we must not be surprised to find that it was not until several centuries after the composition of the Homeric poems—that is, about the sixth century B.C.—that prose-writing appeared among the Greeks. Historical composition was then first cultivated. We can speak briefly of only three historians,—Herodotus, Thucydides and Xenophon,—whose names were cherished among the ancients, and whose writings are highly valued and carefully studied by ourselves.