The Fall of the Athenian Empire-(A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Donald Kagan - (1987)

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old and widely held opinion that so ambitious and egoistic a man could
never function as one of a limited number of equals, as an oligarchy
requires. By casting Alcibiades aside, they also abandoned hope of
gaining Persian support for the Athenian war effort, but they did not
lay aside the plan for changing the constitution. On the contrary, they
believed that since they were in danger because of what they had
already done, they must go forward and find ways to succeed.
What was the source of the danger they feared? Athenians both at
Samos and Athens knew of the plan to change the constitution, since
it had been announced publicly. It ought not to have been unduly
dangerous for the members of the movement to say that they had
decided to abandon the plan since its object, the return of Alcibiades
and the acquisition of Persian aid, could not be achieved. That, in
fact, is what the moderate trierarch Thrasybulus must have done, for
he would have no part in the further activities of the movement; his
next contact with it would be as a leading opponent. 28 It seems likely
that other moderates in the original movement may have dropped out
as soon as the negotiations with Alcibiades and Tissaphernes failed.
But the remaining members of the movement still believed that Athens'
safety and their own well-being required a change. We know that some
were devoted oligarchs for whom constitutional change was a goal in
itself. Others may have thought that without Persian financial assistance
there was even greater need to economize and to eliminate or
reduce the public payments that were part of the full democracy. We
need not imagine that the remaining members of the movement were
all extreme and hardened oligarchs to understand why they were unwilling
to give up what was left of their plan. But now they were
deprived of their most plausible and acceptable reason for making a
change. Hereafter, they could expect greater resistance and hostility.
The departure of Thrasybulus and perhaps others like him, moreover,
increased the danger. He knew who the conspirators were and what
they had in mind. He was a person of importance and ability. Since
he had broken with the movement, he might lead an attack upon it.
Since they were unwilling to abandon the movement, they were right
to see danger. They resolved to keep the movement alive, to provide
from their own resources money and whatever else was needed, and
to hold out in the war. 29