Realm of Achaeus in 218 B.C.

Realm of Achaeus — Spring 218 BC · A Usurper’s Kingdom.

Seleucid Asia Minor, ruled in 218 BC as an independent kingdom by Achaeus — cousin of Antiochus III and the ablest soldier of the house. Sent west in 223 to recover Anatolia from Pergamon, he drove Attalus I back to his capital and won back nearly all the land within the Taurus — then turned the army he had restored against the king who sent him.

In 220 BC, master of all Asia within the Taurus and at the head of a victorious army, Achaeus assumed the diadem and the title of king, ruling from Sardis. In 218 he is the most formidable dynast of Anatolia and a standing rebellion against Antiochus — but isolated, distrusted by his own troops when he marched on Syria. Within five years Antiochus would cross the Taurus, trap him in Sardis, and put him to death.