According to Eusebius, Nicolaus was one of the first deacons and his conduct demonstrated self-control in the face of those pleasures that are eagerly pursued. But certain people twisted what Nicolaus had done to justify their own sexual licentiousness, and they became known as the sect of the Nicolaitans.
Clement of Alexandria said the Nicolaitans abandoned themselves to pleasure like goats. From Clement of Alexandria: The Stromata, or Miscellanies:
Such also are those (who say that they follow Nicolaus, quoting an adage of the man, which they pervert, “that the flesh must be abused.” But the worthy man showed that it was necessary to check pleasures and lusts, and by such training to waste away the impulses and propensities of the flesh. But they, abandoning themselves to pleasure like goats, as if insulting the body, lead a life of self-indulgence; not knowing that the body is wasted, being by nature subject to dissolution; while their soul is buffed in the mire of vice; following as they do the teaching of pleasure itself, not of the apostolic man.
— gnosis.org/library/strom2.htm, to see this in Greek and English go to earlywritings.com/forum/viewtopic.php
The October Testament is a gently updated version of New Testament of the 1537 Matthew Bible. The Matthew Bible was the first English study bible. This note sheds light on the Nicolaitans:
The Nicolaitans were heretics who held that wives ought to be common property, of whom Eusebius writes in Bk 3, chapter 29 of his Ecclesiastical History.
— The October Testament, Revelation 2:6,15 note (a).
Chapter 29 of Eusebius’s Ecclesiastical History Book 3:
Chapter 29. Nicolaus and the Sect named after him.
1. At this time the so-called sect of the Nicolaitans made its appearance and lasted for a very short time. Mention is made of it in the Apocalypse of John. They boasted that the author of their sect was Nicolaus, one of the deacons who, with Stephen, were appointed by the apostles for the purpose of ministering to the poor. Clement of Alexandria, in the third book of his Stromata, relates the following things concerning him.
2. They say that he had a beautiful wife, and after the ascension of the Saviour, being accused by the apostles of jealousy, he led her into their midst and gave permission to any one that wished to marry her. For they say that this was in accord with that saying of his, that one ought to abuse the flesh. And those that have followed his heresy, imitating blindly and foolishly that which was done and said, commit fornication without shame.
3. But I understand that Nicolaus had to do with no other woman than her to whom he was married, and that, so far as his children are concerned, his daughters continued in a state of virginity until old age, and his son remained uncorrupt. If this is so, when he brought his wife, whom he jealously loved, into the midst of the apostles, he was evidently renouncing his passion; and when he used the expression, ‘to abuse the flesh,’ he was inculcating self-control in the face of those pleasures that are eagerly pursued. For I suppose that, in accordance with the command of the Saviour, he did not wish to serve two masters, pleasure and the Lord.
4. But they say that Matthias also taught in the same manner that we ought to fight against and abuse the flesh, and not give way to it for the sake of pleasure, but strengthen the soul by faith and knowledge. So much concerning those who then attempted to pervert the truth, but in less time than it has taken to tell it became entirely extinct.
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