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But when the time came that was ordained to bring him woe, the
occasion of his ruin was the following. He wanted to be initiated in
the Bacchic mysteries, and was on the point of obtaining admission to
the rites, when a most strange prodigy occurred to him. The house
which he possessed, as I mentioned a short time back, in the city of
the Borysthenites, a building of great extent and erected at a vast
cost, round which there stood a number of sphinxes and griffins carved
in white marble, was struck by lightning from on high, and burnt to
the ground. Scylas, nevertheless, went on and received the
initiation. Now the Scythians are wont to reproach the Greeks with
their Bacchanal rage, and to say that it is not reasonable to imagine
there is a god who impels men to madness. No sooner, therefore, was
Scylas initiated in the Bacchic mysteries than one of the
Borysthenites went and carried the news to the Scythians "You
Scyths laugh at us" he said, "because we rave when the god seizes
us. But now our god has seized upon your king, who raves like us,
and is maddened by the influence. If you think I do not tell you
true, come with me, and I will show him to you." The chiefs of the
Scythians went with the man accordingly, and the Borysthenite,
conducting them into the city, placed them secretly on one of the
towers. Presently Scylas passed by with the band of revellers,
raving like the rest, and was seen by the watchers. Regarding the
matter as a very great misfortune they instantly departed, and came and
told the army what they had witnessed.
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