Battle of Chaeronea
In 338 BCE Athens and Thebes formed a last-ditch coalition against Philip. The allied army met Philip's forces at Chaeronea in Boeotia with roughly equal numbers, perhaps 30,000 men per side. Philip commanded the Macedonian right facing the Athenians; his eighteen-year-old son Alexander commanded the Companion Cavalry on the left, facing the Theban forces including the famous Sacred Band — 300 elite warriors paired as lovers, who had never been broken in battle. Philip executed a deliberate tactical withdrawal on his wing, drawing the Athenians out of formation in eager pursuit. When the Athenian line was stretched and disordered, the phalanx stopped retreating and counterattacked. Simultaneously Alexander, recognizing the gap created by the Athenian advance, charged through it with the cavalry and hit the flank of the Theban formation. The Sacred Band was surrounded and annihilated to the last man — their skeletons, buried where they fell, were excavated in 1879 in precisely the formation ancient sources describe. Athens, stunned, sued for peace. Philip was surprisingly merciful — he needed Athens' navy and wanted Greek goodwill for his planned Persian campaign. In 337 BCE Philip organized the League of Corinth, a panhellenic alliance under Macedonian leadership. All Greek states except Sparta joined. Philip announced a crusade against Persia. The Greek city-states' independence was effectively over.
- Year: 338 BCE
- Category: Military
