Chaeronea -- Ancient History Encyclopedia

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338 BC

The first battle of Cheronea. Philip of Macedon defeated the Greek alliance directed against him, led by Athens and Thebes.
c. 87 BC

The second battle of Cheronea. The armies of Mithridates VI Eupator led by his general Archelaos, including a phalanx of freed slaves, was defeated by a Roman army led by Lucius Cornelius Sulla, in spite of the supremacy in cavalry of the Pontic army.
c. 46 AD

The great greek historian and moralist, Plutarch, is born in Cheronea.

Definition

Chaeronea is the site of the famous Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE) Phillip II of Macedon’s decisive defeat of the Greek city-states. At Chaeronea in Boeotia (north of Corinth) Phillip and his allies from Thessaly, Epirus, Aetolia, Northern Phocis and Locrian defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes.

Phillip commanded the right wing while his eighteen-year old son, Alexander lead the left. Alexander is credited with breaking the Theban lines and winning the battle (he was also entrusted with negotiating a peace after the battle). The result of the the Battle of Chaeronea was the unification of the Greek city-states under Macedonian rule. It is cited by later historians as the first battle in which Alexander took part and where he showed, at the early age of eighteen, that military genius which would define his later campaigns and earn him the name Alexander the Great.

Written by JPryst.