The Lenaea was a winter gathering. It was held in the month of Gamelion, at a time corresponding to the end of January.[86] The weather was still often stormy, and the sea was not yet considered safe for voyagers.[87] Consequently there were few visitors in Athens. The festival was a domestic sort of holiday, confined to the Athenians themselves. The proceedings were simple and unpretentious, as compared with the splendid ceremonial and vast audiences at the City Dionysia. Aristophanes, in the Acharnians, which was produced at the Lenaea, says he can now abuse Athens as much as he likes, without being accused of degrading her in the eyes of foreign Greeks.[88] The entertainments at the Lenaea consisted of a procession, and of contests in tragedy and comedy.[89] The procession was not an impressive spectacle, like that at the City Dionysia, but was conducted in primitive fashion by men who drove about in wagons, and assailed the bystanders with abuse and ridicule.[90] The festival as a whole was much shorter than the City Dionysia. The early history of tragedy at the Lenaea is veiled in obscurity. The first piece of information on the subject which we possess belongs to the latter part of the fifth century. It consists of a record of the tragic performances at the Lenaea for the years 419 and 418.[91] In both these years the number of poets who competed was two, and each of them exhibited three tragedies.[92] There is no mention of a satyric play. Again, we are told that in 416 Agathon won a tragic victory at the Lenaea.[93] These two notices comprise all that is known about tragedy at this festival during the fifth century. They appear to prove that towards the close of the century the tragic contests had become a regular institution, though the number of poets and plays was much smaller than at the City Dionysia. Whether the contests were of recent origin, or reached back for many years, cannot be ascertained. During the fourth century new tragedies continued to be produced at the Lenaea without any cessation. In 367 Dionysius, the tyrant of Syracuse, won the tragic prize there. Aphareus, who flourished about 350, exhibited there on two occasions. Theodectes, the pupil of Aristotle, obtained one victory at the Lenaea; Astydamas, his contemporary, obtained seven.[94] As to the arrangement of the contest during this period, and the number of plays produced, there is no information. But it is probable that the new tragedies were preceded by an old one, as at the City Dionysia. After the fourth century nothing further is known about the connexion of the Lenaea with the tragic drama.[95] The festival continued to be celebrated down to the second century A.D., and possibly later.[96] But whether tragedies, either old or new, were still included in the programme, is quite uncertain.