The Athenians and the Spartans, weary from the adventures of the Peloponnesian War, were forced in 423 B.C. to sign a truce for one year. The climate was not suitable for political satire, so Aristophanes in the "Clouds," which he presented that year at the Great Dionysia, decided to mock the education of his time.

However, as the play unfolds, one sees a very biased and slanderous attack against Socrates and the sophists, which shows that Aristophanes could not or did not want to see the depth and breadth of the humanitarian issues being addressed by everyone involved in education and the general molding of youth at that time.