"The Knights" describes the fight of the Paphlagonian against the sausage seller Agoracritus, mocking the way politics is performed in order to gain public acceptance. While the Paphlagonian faces the sausage seller, the play points the finger at the demagogy used by politicians and the vices of political power, its populism and briberies, the political parties' own agendas and at the same time the naivety that often characterizes the people. It is probably the most provoking political satire by Aristophanes, which makes reference to people and events in the Peloponnesian War, but still remains contemporary in its dramaturgy.