Achaios the Younger

Achaios the Younger († 213 BC in Sardis ) was a general of the Greek Seleucid Empire and king in Asia Minor from 220 to 213 BC. Chr.

Achaios the Younger was allegedly a great-grandson of the Seleucid dynasty founder Seleukos I. Nikator and initially served the empire as a general like his father Andromachos and his grandfather Achaios the Elder . His aunt Laodike was the wife of King Seleucus II and the mother of Antiochus III. Achaios was married to another Laodike , the daughter of the Pontic king Mithridates II .

223 BC Achaios accompanied the Seleucid king Seleukos III. on a campaign to Asia Minor when he was murdered. The army spoke out in favor of Achaios as his successor, but he refused in favor of Antiochus III, the younger brother of the murdered. Achaios was then appointed viceroy of Asia Minor because of his loyalty. There the Seleucid influence had been strongly pushed back by the expansion of the Pergamene king Attalus I. In the following three years Achaios made up for these losses and locked Attalos in his capital.

Since 222 BC Achaios was from the Egyptian king Ptolemaios III. courted who wanted the general to change sides. It appears that Achaios eventually began to repent of his earlier renunciation of kingship. The decisive factor was, among other things, the Ptolemy offer to release Achaios' father Andromachos, who was in Egyptian captivity. As Antiochus III. Attacked 220 Atropatene , Achaios took the opportunity and had his soldiers proclaim himself king. Then he marched with his army on Syria to carry out a coup d'état there. Although his troops wished their victorious general the title of king, they refused to fight against the actual king of the Seleucid Empire. When Achaios realized that his army would mutiny, he had it announced that the campaign was in reality only serving to sack Pisidia (Polybios, V 57).

From 219 to 217 Antiochus III was. bound by the Fourth Syrian War against the Ptolemy, so that Achaios could devote himself again to the fight against the other kingdoms of Asia Minor. After the peace agreement between the Seleucids and Ptolemies, Antiochus III moved. but against his renegade general. From 216 to 213 the two members of the Seleucid Empire fought against each other, with Antiochus III. had an advantage from the start, as he was able to conclude an alliance with Attalus I of Pergamon. Achaios was able to defend the military road to Sardis in the first year of the war, but was then trapped in his capital. After two years of siege, he tried to flee but was caught and executed. Antiochus III. Although he had willingly given title and land to defeated foreign kings, Achaios was in his eyes a usurper whom he was not ready to tolerate.

literature

• Hatto H. Schmitt : Investigations into the history of Antiochus the great and his time (= Historia . Individual writings. 6). Steiner, Wiesbaden 1964, (at the same time: Würzburg, university, habilitation paper, 1962/1963).

Web links

• Coins of Achaios