History of the Peloponnesian War

Archidamus was said to have stayed so long at Acharnas with his army in battle array and not to have come down all the time of his invasion into the champaign with this intention.

He hoped that the Athenians, flourishing in number of young men and better furnished for war than ever they were before, would perhaps have come forth against him and not endured to see their fields cut down and wasted;

and, therefore, seeing they met him not in Thriasia, he thought good to try if they would come out against him lying now at Acharnas.

Besides, the place seemed unto him commodious for the army to lie in; and it was thought also that the Acharnans, being a great piece of the city (for they were three thousand men of arms), would not have suffered the spoiling of their lands, but rather have urged the rest to go out and fight. And if they came not out against him at this invasion, they might hereafter more boldly both waste the champaign country and come down even to the walls of the city. For the Acharnans, after they should have lost their own, would not be so forward to hazard themselves for the goods of other men; but there would be the thoughts of sedition in one towards another in the city.

These were the cogitations of Archidamus, whilst he lay at Acharnas.