History of the Peloponnesian War

From supposing, too, that the conspiracy was much more general than it really was, they were the more faint-hearted, and were unable to ascertain its extent, being powerless in consequence of the size of the city, and their not knowing one another's views.

And on this same ground also it was impossible for a man to bemoan himself to another in his indignation, so as [*](ἀμύνασθαι ἐπιβουλεύσαντα.] Or, as others have taken it, to defend himself by plotting against his enemy. But Arnold truly, I think, observes, that if that had been the meaning, Thucydides would probably have written ἀντεπιβουλεύσαντα. In addition to the passage to which he refers, (III. 12. 3,) compare VI. 37, where φυλάσσεσφαι is used in just the same sense as ἀμύνεσθαι is here: ἀντὶ τοῦ ἀεὶ φυλάσσεσθαι αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἀντεπιβουλεῦσαί ποτε ἐκ τοῦ ὁμοίου μεταλάβετε) to repel one who was plotting against him; since he would either have found a person he did not know, to whom to speak his mind, or one whom he knew but could not trust.