History of the Peloponnesian War

The ambassadors of The Four Hundred being returned from Samos to Athens and having related what they had in charge from Alcibiades, how that he exhorted them to hold out and not give ground to the enemy, and that he had great hopes to reconcile them to the army and to overcome the Peloponnesians, whereas many of the sharers in the oligarchy were formerly discontented and would gladly, if they could have done it safely, have quitted the business, they were now a great deal more confirmed in that mind.