‘The battle of Chaeronea was fought in early August, 338 BC, between the forces of Macedon commanded by king Philip II and his eighteen-year-old son Alexander (not yet ‘the Great’) against an unlikely alliance of the forces of Athens and Thebes and other allies. It was, without doubt, one of the most decisive battles ever fought in the ancient world. It decided the fate of Greece – to come under Macedonian domination or remain free. The fate of Greece rested on two of her, hitherto, greatest military powers – Athens and Thebes.

The other great hoplite power, Sparta, had been humbled by Thebes twenty-five years earlier. The result of Chaeronea was, however, to be a crushing victory for Macedonia which kept all of Greece compliant to Macedonian will for the next fifteen years – this in turn allowed Alexander to embark on his unprecedented conquest of the Persian Empire in 334 BC and truly earn the epithet ‘the Great’. The history of the ancient world (and subsequent history) would have been very different had the result of the battle of Chaeronea been an Athenian and Theban victory.’

This episode was written by Murray Dahm.

Murray is an ancient and medieval military historian from New Zealand, living in Australia. He has written more than 100 articles on various aspects of ancient and medieval military history and other historical topics from all periods. He is the author of Macedonian Phalangite vs Persian Warrior, Athenian Hoplite vs Spartan Hoplite and Leuctra 371 BC, all from Osprey Publishing. He is a regular on the Ancient Warfare Podcast.