After his narrow escape from Sulla, Caius Julius Cæsar decided to go away from Rome on an extensive journey. He left Italy in the suite of the Proprætor Marcus Minutius Thermus for the siege of Mitylene, the last of the rebel cities in Asia to hold out against the Romans. From Mitylene he went on to Bithynia, sent by Thermus on a mission to the old king to demand ships to assist in the siege. His stay in the palace of Nicomedes, far from Rome and his family, afterwards became a by-word with his enemies, who were fond of relating how the young Cæsar plunged deep in all the vices of an Oriental Court. What is certain is that he made repeated visits to the Court of Nicomedes between this time and 78, when Publius Servilius, Proconsul of Cilicia, undertook a campaign against the pirates of Lycia and Pamphylia. Cæsar then joined Servilius, and held a subordinate command in the operations; but shortly afterwards, on the news of Sulla's death, he returned to the capital.