the head of the
rebel runaway slaves in Sicily, and was a king for a few days. Fimbria
now despairing came to the rampart, and invited Sulla to a conference.
But Sulla sent Rutilius; and this first of all annoyed Fimbria, as he
was not honoured with a meeting, which is granted even to enemies. On
his asking for pardon for any error that he might have committed,
being still a young man, Rutilius promised that Sulla would allow him
to pass safe to the coast, if he would sail away from Asia, of which
Sulla was proconsul. Fimbria replied that he had better means than
that, and going to Pergamum and entering the temple of AEsculapius, he
pierced himself with his sword. As the wound was not mortal, he bade
his slave plunge the sword into his body. The slave killed his master,
and then killed himself on the body. Thus died Fimbria, who had done
much mischief to Asia after Mithridates. Sulla allowed Fimbria's
freedmen to bury their master; adding that he would not imitate Cinna
and Marius, who had condemned many persons to death at Rome, and also
refused to allow their bodies to be buried. The army of Fimbria now
came over to Sulla, and was received by him and united with his own.
Sulla also commissioned Curio to restore Nicomedes to Bithynia and
Ariobarzanes to Cappadocia, and he wrote to the Senate about all these
matters, pretending that he did not know that he had been declared an
enemy.]

[Footnote 259: Thyateira was a town in Lydia about 45 miles from
Pergamum.]

[Footnote 260: The original is simply "after being initiated;" but the
Eleusinian mysteries are meant. The city of Eleusis was in Attica, and
the sacred rites were those of Ceres and Proserpine (Demeter and
Persephone). Those only who were duly initiated could partake in these
ceremonies. An intruder ran the risk of being put to death. Livius
(31, c. 14) tells a story of two Akarnanian youths who were not
initiated, and during the time of the Initia, as he calls them,
entered the temple of Ceres with the rest of the crowd, knowing
nothing of the nature of the ceremonies. Their language and some
questions that they put, betrayed them, and they were conducted to the
superintendents of the temple; and though it was clear that they had
erred entirely through ignorance, they were put to death as if they
had committed an abominable crime. Toleration was no part of the
religious system of Antiquity; that is, nothing was permitted which
was opposed to any religious in