Who is Cleon from The Complete Plays and what is their importance? The_Complete_Plays English & Literature Cleon | The Complete Plays

Cleon was a member of an aristocratic family in Athens who made his fortune in the tanning business and eventually became the head of a powerful faction of lower class and middle class voters who kept him in power during the time of Aristophanes. After the death of Pericles, Cleon was able to take power by appealing to the interest of his lower class and merchant constituency. He increased the pay of jurors and encouraged, at least through his institutional incentives, the leveling of false charges for gain a practice that is lampooned in Wasps.