The Battle of Chaeronea
One of the most important battles in history was the battle of Chaeronea, where the Macedonians clashed with the southern city-states, Athens, Thebes and their allies.
The decisive struggle between the Macedonians and the Athenians, Thebans and their allies took place on the southern border of Macedonia in the plain of Chaeronea, on August 2nd , 338 BC. The Macedonian king, Philip II had with him some 30 000 infantry and about 2 000 cavalry, all trained veterans. The Athenians, Thebans and their allies were equally numerous, but of them only the mercenaries and Thebans could be called experienced soldiers. On the allied right wing were the Beotians, some 12 000 led by the Theban Sacred Band. On the left wing were stationed Athens’ 10 000 hoplites. The center was made up from the remaining allied contingents, with a stiffening of 5 000 mercenaries.
The Macedonians knew that any serious opposition they got would come from the Thebans, and that the Athenians were without combat experience.
Philip’s tactical dispositions were made accordingly. He himself commanded the right wing, at the head of his Guards Brigade, with a strong, light-armed force to protect his flank. In the center he placed the regiments of the Phalanx. The command of the heavy cavalry on the extreme left wing, opposite the Sacred Band, went to his son, eighteen-year-old genius Alexander – an extraordinarily responsible appointment for somebody as young as the Prince was.
When battle was joined, Philip’s right wing slightly out-flanked the Athenians left. Step by well-drilled step, the Guards Brigade moved back, facing to their front a hedgehog bristle of Sarissa holding the pursuit at bay. Presently two things happened for which Philip had been waiting. The Macedonians backed up on the rising ground by the banks of a small stream, the Haemus; and that fatal gap at last opened between the Alliance’s center and Thebans brigades on their right. Into the gap thus opened, at the head of Macedonia’s finest cavalry division, thundered the young crowned prince, while a second mounted brigade attacked the Sacred Band from the flank. Very soon the Thebans were completely surrounded.
The Athenians had become badly disorganized during their advance. The Macedonians drove them headlong into the foothills, killed a thousand of them and a few thousand were captured. The entire allied army broke and fled.
The Macedonian victory over Athens, Thebes and the rest of the city-states was total and overwhelming. The young prince Alexander has been credited with playing a great part in the Macedonian victory as part of Philips élite companion cavalry, but it was the awesome steadiness and drill of Philip’s Phalanx of pikemen that won the battle.
In the fall of 338 BC, Philip proceeded southward. Megara and Corinth, which had fought against him at Chaeronea, with the pro-Macedonians now in power welcomed him, as did all the Pelopennesian states. He marched through Laconia, ravaging the land as far as Gytheum.
After the battle of Chaeronea the city-states were completely defeated by the Macedonians. Macedonia soon began on her road to the conquering of the known world, which later resulted in the Great Macedonian Empire
