History of the Peloponnesian War

They likewise sent ten men to Samos, to reassure the troops, and to tell them that the oligarchy had not been established for the injury of the city and the citizens, but for the preservation of the whole state; moreover, that there were five thousand, and not four hundred only, who had a share in the government; though never yet, in consequence of their expeditions and their foreign occupations, had the Athenians come to consult on a business of such importance that five thousand of them assembled for the purpose.

They gave them, too, all other instructions as to what was suitable for them to say, and despatched them immediately after their own estabment in power, being afraid that a mob of sailors might (as was really the case) both themselves refuse to continue under the government of an oligarchy, and through the evil spreading from that quarter be the means of deposing them.