| home : index : picture archive : Battlefields : Greece : photos by Jona Lendering © | ||
Chaeronea (338 BCE) |
||
 |
The plain of Chaeronea and, in the background, Mount Parnassus. At this site king Philip II of Macedonia overcame the last Greek resistance against his rule (August 338). The importance of the battle has been overestimated. The freedom of the Greek cities had already come to an end during the Third Sacred War (354-346). |
|
 |
Map of the battle field of Chaeronea. According to Polyaenus, the Macedonians used a stratagem. The right wing of their army slowly moved backwards, and the Athenians (on the Greek left wing) moved forwards. This created a gap in the Greek lines. | |
 |
When this gap opened, the Macedonian crown prince Alexander,
who commanded the left wing, immediately charged and broke through. He
attacked the Greek right wing, which was occupied by the Theban "Sacred
Band", which was massacred. This was the end of the battle - and the beginning
of the spectacular military career of Alexander. The story is also told
by Diodorus
of Sicily, who stresses different aspects of the fight (text).
This picture shows thee tomb of the fallen Thebans at Chaeronea. |
|
|
An ivory showing king Philip. It was found in one of the royal graves
in Vergina and can now be seen in Thessaloniki's Archaeological museum.
After the battle, Philip reorganized Greece. On several places (Corinth, Thebes...) he laid garrisons, and he forced the once independent cities to conclude a common peace and become members of the Corinthian League (text). And Philip announced a war against the Persian Empire, in which the regiments of the Greek allies would serve as hostages. |
|
 |
Alexander at the age of eighteen. Detail of the victory monument that Philip erected after the battle. The statue, known as the Rondanini Alexander, can be seen in the Glyptothek of Munich. Philip was assassinated before he could join the Persian war; the conquest of Asia was left to Alexander. | |
|
|
||
