Chairôneia 338 BCE: The Fall of Greece

Boiotia, late summer 338 BCE. The defeat and victory on the small Boiotian plain east of Chairôneia was to drag the Greek world of warring autonomous city-states into a proto-national state. The architect of this geopolitical shake-up, with its sudden death of old alliances and antagonisms, was Philip II of Macedon. He was a creative warrior king whose expansionist policies and military reforms had turned a turbulent unstable kingdom on the northern fringes of the Greek world into a regional superpower.

The battle itself was a hard-fought contest between the old-style citizen hoplite phalanx of the Greek states and the professional sarissa-armed phalanx of Macedon. His victory, the last but greatest of his career, clearly demonstrated Philip's tactical acumen and superior leadership skills.

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