This man became a deserter.[1] Aristophanes [writes]: "if anyone is keen to be a taxiarch, let him suffer in battle exactly what Kleonymos does".[2] And [there is] a proverb: 'more cowardly than Kleonymos'. Aristophanes [writes elsewhere]: "seeing the deserter Kleonymos they became stags".[3] For he was a coward. But [Aristophanes] spoke of something recent, using the opportunity to shame the culprit; for it is recent lapses that do the greater harm.