Battle of Chaeronea

In 338 BC Philip II of Macedon marched south to settle his control over Greece, and Thebes and Athens, long enemies, joined forces to block him. The armies met on the plain of Chaeronea in Boeotia. According to one account, Philip's veterans on the right pretended to give way, drawing the Athenians out of line, while Alexander, about eighteen, led the cavalry on the other wing against the Thebans. The Thebans' elite Sacred Band, 300 picked hoplites, was surrounded and cut down almost to the last man. The victory ended the independence of the Greek city-states, and Philip soon organised them into a league under Macedonian leadership.

The main narrative sources, Diodorus and Plutarch, were written centuries later and sometimes disagree about who stood where, so the feigned retreat is debated, and some historians think Philip's wing simply gave ground under pressure. Alexander's real role is also uncertain, since later tradition had reason to magnify the future conqueror's part in the day. The battle is widely seen as ending the independence of the city-states, though Greek civic life went on for centuries.