"I’ll tell you what I think about the way This city treats her soundest men today: By coincidence more sad than funny, It’s very like the way we treat our money. The noble silver drachma, which of old We were so proud of, and the one of gold Coins that rang so true Throughout the world have ceased to circulate. Instead the purses of Athenian shoppers Are full of phoney silver-plated coppers. Just so, when men are needed by the nation, The best have withdrawn from circulation" From the Athenian playwright Aristophanes.