History of the Peloponnesian War

[But this they were prevented doing;] [*]( The γάρ in this sentence refers to ἀναγκασθέντες in the first section; a that in the preceding one does to διενοοῦντο.) for the Tenedians, who were at variance with them, and the Methymnaeans, and even some private individuals of the Mytilenaeans, under the influence of party spirit, as proxeni of the Athenians informed that people that the Mytilenaeans were forcibly bringing [the rest of] Lesbos into union with their own city, and hurrying all their preparations for a revolt, in conjunction with the Lacedaemonians and Boeotians, [*]( i. e. of the Aeolic race, to which most of the northern states of Greece considered themselves to belong, and amongst the rest the Boeotians, who had chiefly composed the colony headed by Penthilus, the son of Orestes from which the Lesbians derived their origin.) who were of the sale face as themselves, and that if some one did not at once anticipate their designs, they would lose Lesbos.

But the Athenians (being distressed by the plague and the war, which had so recently broken out and was now at its height) thought it a serious business to incur the additional hostility of Lesbos, with her fleet and power hitherto unimpaired; and were not at first disposed to listen to the charges, allowing too much weight to their wish that it might not be true. When, however, they had even sent ambassadors without prevailing on the Mytilenaeans to stop their measures for the union and their preparations, they were alarmed, and wished to reduce them by surprise.