Cleon (/ˈkliːɒn, -ən/; Greek:Κλέων Kleon, Ancient Greek: [kléɔːn]; died 422 BCE) was an Athenian general during the Peloponnesian War. He was the first prominent representative of the commercial class in Athenian politics, although he was an aristocrat himself. His contemporaries Thucydides and Aristophanes represented him as a warmonger and a demagogue.