At the time when they were plotting the murder of Magas and Berenice, being in great fear of their project filing chiefly owing to the high courage of Berenice, they were compelled to conciliate the whole court, holding out hopes of favour to everyone if things fell out as they wished.
Sosibius on this occasion observing that Cleomenes was in need of assistance from the king, and that he was a man of judgement with a real grasp of the facts, confided the whole plot to him, picturing the high favours he might expect.
Cleomenes, seeing that he was in state of great alarm and in fear chiefly of the foreign soldiers and mercenaries, bade him be of good heart, promising him that the mercenaries would do him no harm, but would rather be helpful to him.
When Sosibius showed considerable surprise at this promise, "<a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Don&groupId=127&placeId=365">Don</a>\'t you see," he said, "that nearly three thousand of them are from the <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Peloponnese&groupId=861&placeId=1552">Peloponnese</a> and about a thousand are Cretans, and I need but make a sign to these men and they will all put themselves joyfully at your service.
Once they are united whom have you to fear? The soldiers from <a class="linkToPlace" target="_blank" href="/place?placename=Syria&groupId=995&placeId=502">Syria</a> and Caria I suppose!"
At the time Sosibius was delighted to hear this and pursued the plot against Berenice with doubled confidence, but afterwards, when he witnessed the king's slackness, the words were always coming back to his mind, and the thought of Cleomenes' daring and popularity with the mercenaries kept on haunting him.
It was he therefore who on this occasion was foremost in instigating the king and his friends to take Cleomenes into custody before it was too late.
To reinforce this advice he availed himself of the following circumstance.
Walbank Commentary