Antony spent the winter of 42 BC in Athens, where he ruled generously towards the Greek cities. A proclaimed "philhellene" ("Friend of all things Greek"), Antony supported Greek culture to win the loyalty of the inhabitants of the Greek East. He attended religious festivals and ceremonies, including initiation into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a secret cult dedicated to the worship of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone. Beginning in 41 BC, he traveled across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia, leaving his friend Lucius Marcius Censorius as governor of Macedonia and Achaea. Upon his arrival in Ephesus in Asia, Antony was worshiped as the god Dionysus born anew. He demanded heavy taxes from the Hellenic cities in return for his pro-Greek culture policies, but exempted those cities which had remained loyal to Caesar during the civil war and compensated those cities which had suffered under Caesar's assassins, including Rhodes, Lycia, and Tarsus. He granted pardons to all Roman nobles living in the East who had supported the Optimate cause, except for Caesar's assassins.