Battle of Chaeronea
Battle plan of Chaeronea
Date 2 August 338 BC Location In Boeotia Result Decisive Macedonian victory
Combatants
Macedon	Athens, Thebes
Commanders
Philip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great	Chares of Athens, Lysicles of Athens, Theagenes of Boeotia
Strength
22,000 infantry, 2,000 cavalry	35,000
Casualties
3,800 killed	5,000 Athenians killed, 254+ Boeotians killed, 3,000 captured

The Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC), fought near Chaeronea, in Boeotia, was the greatest victory of Philip II of Macedon. There, Philip (with 22,000 men) defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes, securing Macedonian hegemony in Greece. Combatants Macedon, Greek allies Persia, Greek mercenaries Commanders Alexander the Great, Parmenion, Clitus the Black Spithridates, Mithridates, Memnon of Rhodes Strength 20,000 peltasts[1] 22,000 hoplites[2] 5,000 cavalry[2] 9,500 peltasts[2] 5,000 Greek hoplites[3] 10,000 cavalry[3] Casualties 350 killed 4... For other uses, see Battle of Issus (disambiguation). ... In 332 BC, Alexander the Great set out to conquer Tyre, a strategic coastal base in the war between the Greeks and the Persians. ... Combatants Macedon Achaemenid Persia Commanders Alexander the Great Darius III Strength 9,000 peltasts,[1] 31,000 hoplites,[1][2] 7,000 cavalry[2] 1,000,000 total (See Size of Persian army) Casualties 4,000 40,000[3] The Battle of Gaugamela (IPA: ) took place in 331 BC between... Combatants Macedonian Empire Persia Commanders Alexander the Great Ariobarzan † Strength 17,000[1][2] 700[1] Casualties Thousands[1] 700[1] The Battle of the Persian Gate was fought northeast of todays Yasuj in Iran between a group of Persian patriots led by Ariobarzan against the large invading Macedonian... Sogdiana, ca. ... Combatants Macedonian Empire Greek allies Persian allies Indian allies Paurava Commanders Alexander the Great, Craterus King Porus Strength 34,000 infantry,[2][3][4] 7,000 cavalry[5][6] 50,000 infantry,[7] 5,000 cavalry,[7] 200 war elephants,[8][9] 1,000 chariots[10] Casualties 4,000 infantry... Centuries: 5th century BC - 4th century BC - 3rd century BC Decades: 380s BC 370s BC 360s BC 350s BC 340s BC - 330s BC - 320s BC 310s BC 300s BC 290s BC 280s BC 343 BC 342 BC 341 BC 340 BC 339 BC - 338 BC - 337 BC 336 BC 335... Chaeronea was a city in the province of Boeotia in Ancient Greece. ... Boeotia or Beotia (//, (Greek Βοιωτια; see also list of traditional Greek place names) was the central area of ancient Greece. ... Philip II of Macedon: victory medal (niketerion) struck in Tarsus, 2nd c. ... This article is about the capital of Greece. ... Thebes (Demotic Greek: Θήβα — Thíva; Katharevousa: — Thêbai or Thívai) is a city in Greece, situated to the north of the Cithaeron range, which divides Boeotia from Attica, and on the southern edge of the Boeotian plain. ...

The battle itself pitted the epic phalanx of the Athenian and Theban confederates against the Macedonian phalanx of Philip. The confederate battle line formed with the Athenians holding the left wing and the Thebans holding the right wing (with the all-important extreme right flank protected by the Sacred Band). Athenians and Thebans occupied the center of the line. In the Macedonian line, Philip commanded the right wing, while Alexander commanded the left wing, together with the best commanders of the king. The famed Companions was situated to the rear of the Macedonian line. Macedonian phalanx formation showing the employment of Macedonian spear or sarissas making the formation nearly impregnable from the front but cumbersome, tactically unwieldy and vulnerable from side or rear A phalanx (plural phalanxes or phalanges) is a rectangular mass military formation, usually composed entirely of heavy infantry armed with spears... The Macedonian phalanx is an infantry formation developed by Philip II and used by his son Alexander the Great to conquer the Persian Empire and other armies. ... The Sacred Band of Thebes (ancient Greek: ) was a troop of picked soldiers, numbering 150 age-structured which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC.[1] It was organized by the Theban commander Gorgidas in 378 BC and it played a crucial role in... The Companions (Greek Εταίροι) were Alexander the Greats elite cavalry, the main offensive arm of his army, and also his elite guard. ...

Ancient sources tell us that the two sides fought bitterly for a long time. It would appear that Philip deliberately withdrew his troops on the right wing, in order to break up the enemy lines. Most sources agree in saying that Alexander was the first to break into the Theban lines, followed by a courageous band (presumably his kinsmen and friends); upon seeing this, Philip urged his forces to attack with great fury and the Athenians — ardent but untrained — were unable to resist his Macedonian veterans. With the rout of the Athenians, the Thebans were left to fight for themselves and were crushed. Of the famed 300-strong Sacred Band of Thebes, 254 fell on the field of battle, while 46 were wounded and captured. The Sacred Band of Thebes (ancient Greek: ) was a troop of picked soldiers, numbering 150 age-structured which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC.[1] It was organized by the Theban commander Gorgidas in 378 BC and it played a crucial role in...

According to Diodorus Siculus, the battle was hotly contested for a long time, until finally Alexander forced his way through the enemy line and put his opponents to flight.^[1] More than a thousand Athenians fell in the battle and no less than two thousand were captured. Likewise, many of the Boeotians were killed and not a few taken prisoners.^[1] Diodorus Siculus (c. ... For the film of the same name, see Alexander the Great (1956 film). ... Boeotia (Greek Βοιωτια) was a central area of ancient Greece. ...

A different account of the battle was advanced by the Alexander historian Nicholas G. L. Hammond which has established itself as the popular version in latter years. He speculated that it was Alexander, in person, who at the head of the Companion cavalry drove into the gap and outflanked the enemy lines; however none of the sources we have (the main ones being Plutarch, Frontinus and Diodorus) mention this feature of the battle. It should be noted that Hammond never pretended that this was anything more than speculation, but the story has subsequently been propagated in many history books and web sites as historical fact. Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond (November 14, 1907 - March 24, 2001) was a British historian - teaching at Cambridge and Bristol - who specialized on Greece and Macedonia. ... Mestrius Plutarchus (Greek: Πλούταρχος; 46 - 127), better known in English as Plutarch, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist. ... Sextus Julius Frontinus (c. ... Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian, born at Agyrium in Sicily (now called Agira, in the province of Enna). ...

Effect

Macedon's supremacy over the Greek city-states was finally established, sanctioned later that year by the birth of the League of Corinth, dominated by Philip. The League of Corinth was a federation of Greek states created by Philip II of Macedon during the winter of 338 BC/337 BC to facilitate his use of Greek military forces in his war against Persia. ...

The battle is also of great importance in the fact that it signaled the decline of the city-state institution - and along with it went Greek democracy - and the rise of the territorial states; to this it can be added that it prepared the ground for the Macedonian conquest of the Persian Empire a few years later as well as the later Hellenistic domination of much of the known world. Persia redirects here. ... The term Hellenistic (established by the German historian Johann Gustav Droysen) in the history of the ancient world is used to refer to the shift from a culture dominated by ethnic Greeks, however scattered geographically, to a culture dominated by Greek-speakers of whatever ethnicity, and from the political dominance...

External links

• Livius Picture Archive: the battle of Chaeronea (338 BC)

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} Diodorus, Library, XVI 86