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Battles: Battle of Chaeronea
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Posted by Acumen on November 5 2004, 03:57 PM
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The battle of Chaeronea was the greatest victory of Macedonian king Philip II and was also the beginning of the long period of Macedonian hegemony over Greece. At Chaeronea Philip used combined arms to win the battle and thus set the example for his son Alexander.
Philip had turned Macedon into a power in his time on the throne, but he wanted to unify Greece under his control, for a great war of revenge against the Achaemenid (Persian) Empire to the east, and for that unification he needed a good excuse to get involved in Greek affairs. His chance came in the early 350s as the city of Thebes and the city of Phocis began to have disagreements over the treasures housed in the temples at the Oracle of Delphi. In an attempt to gain control the Thebans managed to get the Oracle to proclaim a “Sacred War” against the Phocians, who in response seized the temple treasures. The Phocians remarkably held out against the Thebans and fought back against them. Using this as his excuse Philip marched south into Greece and beat the Phocians decisively, conquering them in 346 B.C. Philip then took the place of Phocis at Delphi. In 339 B.C. word got out that the city of Amphissa had planned on conquering Delphi itself during the war, the central Greek cities in shock asked Philip to punish the Amphissans for this attempted act, which Philip was more then glad to do. However the Thebans were suspicious of Philip’s intentions, for when he was younger Philip had been a goodwill hostage of Thebes, so they knew how his mind worked. The Thebans would be proved correct when Philip suddenly occupied the “gates” of Thermopylae, surprising everyone in the process. In Athens Philip’s sudden move propelled the War Party to dominance in the Assembly and as a result the Athenians concluded an alliance with Thebes, who was at the time one of Athens’ worst enemies. But when the Athenians tried to get Sparta into their alliance they were met with failure, the Spartans refused to get involved in this. During this time Philip marched out from Thermopylae towards Boeotia and Thebes. As winter came both the Macedonians and the Greeks halted progress until spring, though the Greeks did become agaited by Philip’s occisonal raiding parties, because winter was supposed to be resting period. In the spring of 338 B.C. the Greeks attempted to block Philip from entering Boeotia at Amphissa and in some rocky passes, but they were defeated. The Greeks under the over all command of the Athenian general Chares now put the main body of the army on the plains near the city of Chaeronea, which is were Philip found them when his army arrived.
The army of King Philip II was revolutionary. King Philip marched towards the Greeks at Chaeronea with an army comprised of 24,000 of his new phalangite hoplite pike men in the center, 3,000 elite Hypaspistai on the right flank, and 2,000 cavalry on the left flank. Philip, in an interesting move made himself the front line commander of the Hypaspistai and his son Prince Alexander the cavalry commander.
The Greeks opposite to Philip had an army that was usual for the Greeks of this time period. The Greek Army of Chares was made up of a total of 30,000 regular hoplites from the cities of Athens, Eboea, Corinth, and Megara on the left flank with Leucas and Corcyra in the center. The Thebans with their elite Sacred Band of 300 men were on the left flank of the army. The Greeks had also hired 5,000 mercenary psiloi for ranged support.
The battle of Chaeronea began with Philip marching in a unique way. Philip began marching towards the Greeks with his army marching in an oblique formation so that the Hypaspistai and the right wing would crash into the Greek lines first, which is what happened. At first the Hypaspistai and the Greek hoplites were evenly matched and both looked like they would win. Then in a surprise move Philip ordered his men to retreat to the high ground on the opposite end of the battlefield. The Greeks, led by the Athenian hoplites and urged on by their commander, Stratocles followed after the fleeing Macedonians, certain of victory. Now Philip’s plan becomes obvious as the Athenian hoplites charged forward, effectively splitting the army in two as one half chases Philip while the other stays put. Prince Alexander then ordered his cavalry wing to charge directly into the now exposed flank of the Thebans, with great success. Philip then noticed that his son had charged and took this as a sign to turn around and confront the Greeks, which he does. The disordered Greek lines do not hold for long against both Philip’s Hypaspistai and the Macedonian phalangites who turned their attention to the Greeks centerline troops, who had gotten pulled with the Athenians in their charge. Meanwhile Alexander and his cavalry had destroyed or routed all of the Theban troops expect the Sacred Band. Alexander knew the Sacred Band was tough and waited until one of Philip’s phalangite regiments engaged them frontally. Alexander then ordered his cavalry to hit them from the sides and rear. The blood bath was great as all but 46 out of 300 were killed by the Macedonians. During this time it is said that Alexander’s horse was killed from underneath him and he was thought dead until he found Philip after the battle (the validity of this is doubted, but included nevertheless). Philip did not order a pursuit of the Greeks, wanting some to survive to tell of the battle, he was content with the fact that he had captured the Athenian orator and leader of the War Party, Demosthenes. Philip’s victory and Macedonian hegemony were now secure.
In the time following Chaeronea much happened. Because he so admired the Sacred Band Philip went out of his way to commission a statue of a lion at the place were they fell, the statue also doubled as a reminder to Philip of his stunning victory .With the victory at Chaeronea Philip had gotten the decisive victory he had always wanted over the Greeks, he also got a victory that proved the superiority of the Macedonian phalanx over the Greek hoplite. In the months following Chaeronea Philip called for a conference of all of the city-states, except Sparta at Corinth and there Philip oversaw the signing of the document that founded the League of Corinth, the only objective of it was to avenge Greek honor against the Persians, which was Philip’s greatest dream. The League also made Philip its Hegemon or general-in-chief of the armed forces of the League. To insure stability Philip allowed the League members their autonomy, but took away the freedom to make social or political change, he also made it a punishable offense to try to do away with either him or his successors. Philip now had his decisive victory, Chaeronea, and his Pan-Hellenic League; he was ready to move against Persia. However Philip was assassinated in 337 B.C. before this could happen, leaving his dream in the hands of his 16 year old son, Alexander. In conclusion the importance of Chaeronea to the future campaigns of Alexander the Great can not be underestimated, it is no overestimation to say that if Chaeronea had not been won, Alexander probably would not have accomplished what he did in history. |
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