Tetradrachm - Achaios Usurper Sardes

Achaios was a Seleucid general who governed Asia Minor on behalf of Antiochos III before declaring himself king outright around 220 BC — a usurpation that put him in open rebellion against his own cousin. He held Sardis and much of Anatolia for roughly six years before Antiochos, having stabilized his eastern campaigns, turned west and besieged the city. Sardis fell in 214 BC, and Achaios was captured, mutilated, and executed in a manner the sources describe in deliberate, humiliating detail.

Coins struck in his name are rare precisely because his mint operated under siege conditions in its final years.