History of the Peloponnesian War

So after giving them these and other instructions as to the proper explanations to offer, they sent them off immediately after their own assumption of office, fearing lest— as actually happened—a crowd of sailors might of itself not be willing to abide by the oligarchical form of government, and so, the mischief having once begun at Samos, bring about their own overthrow.

For in Samos a reaction had already set in against the oligarchical movement, and the following events took place at about the very time when the Four Hundred were organizing.