From the remotest ages of Pelasgian antiquity down to the time of the Roman empire, the holy island of Samothrace, the seat of an awfully mysterious worship, accounted equal to Delphi in sanctity, and an inviolable asylum, continued to be visited by pilgrims, who went to be initiated into the rites which were believed to secure the devotee against extraordinary perils both by sea and land, and, in the later period, to fix his destiny after death in some brighter sphere. It had probably been always held in great reverence by the Macedonian kings, as it was here that the last of them sought refuge in the wreck of his fortunes. Here it is said Philip first saw Olympias, when they partook at the same time in the Cabirian mysteries, and resolved to seek her hand. For him such a scene may have had little other interest: but Olympias seems to have taken delight in such ceremonies, and to have given herself up with fervour to the impression they produced. She loved the fanatical orgies celebrated by the Thracian and Macedonian women in honour of their Dionysus; and is even said to have introduced some of the symbols of this frantic worship, the huge tame snakes, which the Bacchanals wreathed round their necks and arms, into her husband's palace. It is a stroke which agrees well with the other features of her wild impetuous character.