History of the Peloponnesian War

and these measures were to be simultaneously executed on the same day; that the Boeotians might not oppose them in a body at Delium, but have to attend to their own respective neighbourhoods that were being revolutionized.

And should the attempt succeed, and Delium be fortified, they confidently hoped, that even if no change in their constitution were immediately made by the Boeotians, yet when these posts were occupied by Athenian garrisons, and the land was being plundered, and the several parties had a rallying place close at hand, that things would not remain in their present position, but that, in the course of time, when the Athenians supported the disaffected, and the power of the oligarchs was disunited, they would settle them to their own advantage. Such then was the design in preparation.