Archias was originally trained as a rhetor under Anaximenes of Lampsacus and Lacritus before becoming an actor.
[4] Plutarch mentions him as having been the mentor of the great actor Polus of Aegina,[5] as well as having once won the Lenaia around 330, despite being, as far as Athens was concerned, a "foreigner".
He was not an Athenian, but neither was he a Macedonian, and seemed to have no affiliation with any political parties, so later historians have assumed his motivations to have been mercenary in nature.
Archias was sent in 322, after the Battle of Crannon, to apprehend the anti-Macedonian orators whom Antipater had demanded of the Athenians,[7] and who had fled from Athens.
Archias seized Hypereides, Aristonicos, and Himeraeus, and had them dragged from the sanctuary of Aeacus in Aegina, and transported to Cleonae in Argolis, where they were executed.