History of the Peloponnesian War

He consented to do so, out of regard for the Messenians, and still more because he thought, that without employing the forces of Athens, with only continental tribes as his allies, and with the Aetolians, he would be able to go by land against the Boeotians, through the Locri Ozolae to Cytinium in Doris, keeping Parnassus on his right hand till he reached the Phocians, who, he thought, would eagerly join him, for the friendship they had always borne the Athenians, or might be brought over by force; and to Phocis Boeotia is at once the bordering state. Starting therefore with all his armament from Leucas, in opposition to the wishes of the Acarnanians, lie coasted along to Sollium.

There he communicated his plan to the Acarnanians; and when they did not assent to it in consequence of his refusal to invest Leucas, he himself with the remainder of the force, the Cephallenians, Messenians, Zacynthians, and the three hundred [*]( i. e. the heavy-armed soldiers who served on board ship, answering to our marines.) epibatae from his own ships, (for the fifteen Corcyraean vessels had gone away,) made an expedition against the Aetolians, having his head-quarters at Aeneon in Locris.

Now the Locri Ozolae were allies or the Athenians, and were to meet them in full force in the heart of the country: for as they bordered on the Aetolians, and were similarly equipped, they were thought likely to prove of great service in acting with them, from their acquaintance both with the Aetolian mode of fighting and with the localities.