Archias of Cyprus

Archias (Ancient Greek: Ἀρχίας) was the governor (strategos) of Cyprus under Ptolemy VI Philometor in the 2nd century BCE.[1]

Little is known of Archias's life. He traveled with Ptolemy to Rome in 164, and took his post in Cyprus in 163.[2] The Seleucids had always had their eye on the island, and in 155 Demetrius I Soter gave Archias a bribe of 500 talents in order to betray the island. Archias was caught, and put on trial for this. Before the trial could be resolved in a guilty or innocent verdict, Archias hanged himself.[3][4] While 155 is traditionally considered his date of death, various scholars have put the date of his suicide anywhere between 158 and 154.[2]

This event was said to have inspired the adage of the Dutch Renaissance humanist Erasmus, "Inanium inania consilia" ("futile advice from futile people"), said when a person of low intelligence is foiled in their plans.[5]

Notes

1. Polybius, The Histories 33.3
2. Bagnall, Roger S. (1976). The Administration of the Ptolomaic Possessions Outside Egypt. Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition. 4. Brill Publishers. p. 257. ISBN 9789004044906. Retrieved 2017-10-06.
3. Habicht, C. (1953). "The Seleucids and their rivals". In Astin, A. E.; Walbank, F. W.; Frederiksen, M. W.; Ogilvie, R. M. (eds.). The Cambridge Ancient History: Rome and the Mediterranean to 133 B.C. VIII (2 ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 361. ISBN 9780521234481. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
4. Gruen, Erich S. (1986). The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome. 1. University of California Press. p. 702. ISBN 9780520057371. Retrieved 2017-10-07.
5. Erasmus (2005). Grant, John N. (ed.). Collected Works of Erasmus - Adages III IV 1 to IV II 100. Collected Works of Erasmus Series. 35. University of Toronto Press. p. 81. ISBN 9780802036438. Retrieved 2017-10-07.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Smith, William (1870). "Archias". In Smith, William (ed.). Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology. 1. p. 266.