against isolated Mithridatic garrisons along the Via Egnatia, alongside the Thracian coast, the army camped outside Byzantium. Here Fimbria seized the opportunity to deliver a speech to the soldiers, denouncing Flaccus, accusing him of withholding their money and booty, and living in luxury within the city, while the soldiers endured storms and the winter cold outside. Some of the men, roused to fury, stormed into the city and lodged themselves in places of their choosing. Fimbria, around this time, entered into a dispute with another officer over lodgings, and Flaccus showed little sympathy for his recalcitrant subordinate, deciding in favor of the latter party. Flaccus then discharged Fimbria and appointed another officer, Minucius Thermus, to take charge of the army while Flaccus himself crossed the Hellespont to Asia in advance. Once Flaccus had sailed to Chalcedon, Fimbria fomented a full-scale mutiny among the rest of the troops at Byzantium. He seized the fasces from Thermus, took command of the army, crossed the Bosphorus, and marched towards Nicomedia, where Flaccus had subsequently taken refuge. Fimbria had Flaccus murdered, his head hurled into the sea, and allowed his soldiers to plunder the city. In Asia Flavius Fimbria now marched against the armies of the king, Mithridates, soundly defeating a large force under the command of the king's identically named son at the river Rhyndacus near Miletopolis. Fimbria managed to lure the Mithridatic cavalry, which had been skirmishing with success against his legions, into a deadly ambush. To deal with the enemy infantry, Fimbria broke camp before daybreak, crossed a stream while the rain concealed the sound of the army's march, and caught the Mithridatic army sleeping. After this decisive victory, many cities in Asia defected from Mithridates to Fimbria. He chased the king himself into Pitane on the coast of Aeolis, and would undoubtedly have captured him had Lucullus, Sulla's admiral, co-operated and blockaded the port. Fimbria treated most cruelly all the people of Asia who had revolted from Rome or sided with Sulla. Having gained admission to Ilium by declaring that, as a Roman, he was friendly, he massacred the inhabitants and burnt the place to the ground. But in 85 Sulla crossed over from Greece to Asia, made peace with Mithridates, and turned his arms against Fimbria, who, seeing that there was no chance of escape, committed suicide, with the assistance of a slave. The two Fimbrian legions were made