Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Chairôneia 338 Bce: The Fall of Greece

Chairôneia 338 Bce: The Fall of Greece

Fields, Nic

Paperback

Series: From Alexander to Adrianople 3000 Bce-400 CE

Ancient GreeceGeneral Military HistoryOther Wars

Currently unavailable to order

ISBN10: 1804519901
ISBN13: 9781804519905
Publisher: Helion & Company
Published: Oct 31 2026
Pages: 156
Weight: 1.25
Height: 0.48 Width: 7.10 Depth: 9.70
Language: English
A turning-point clash on a grassy plain reveals how leadership, reform, and warfare modernized a fragmented Greek world into a regional power.

Boiotia, late summer 338 BCE. On a small plain east of Chairōneia, the armies of Philip II of Macedon met the combined forces of Athens, Thebes and their allies in one of the decisive battles of the ancient world. By sunset, the independence of the Greek city-states had effectively come to an end. Philip's victory shattered the old political order, established Macedonian supremacy over Greece and laid the foundations upon which Alexander the Great would build his empire.

Yet Chairōneia was far more than a single day's fighting. It represented the culmination of decades of political rivalry, military innovation and relentless campaigning. In this comprehensive study, Nic Fields examines the decline of the traditional Greek city-state, the rise of Macedon under Philip II, and the emergence of a professional military system capable of defeating the citizen armies that had dominated Greek warfare for centuries.

The book explores the political landscape of fourth-century Greece, the ambitions and personality of Philip himself, the economic resources that financed his expansion, and the revolutionary reforms that transformed the Macedonian army into the most formidable fighting force of its age. Detailed chapters analyse the organisation, equipment and tactics of the Macedonian phalanx, Companion cavalry, hypaspists and supporting arms, alongside equally thorough examinations of the armies of Athens and the Boiotian Confederacy, placing each within its political, social and military context.

Only then does the narrative turn to the dramatic campaign of 338 BCE. Step by step, Fields reconstructs Philip's advance into central Greece, the diplomatic manoeuvring that brought Athens and Thebes into alliance, the deployment of both armies on the plain of Chairōneia, and the fierce struggle that followed. The controversial role of the eighteen-year-old Alexander, the destruction of the Sacred Band, Philip's celebrated feigned retreat, and the battle's lasting consequences are all examined against the surviving literary, archaeological and topographical evidence.

Richly illustrated with specially commissioned colour artwork, detailed maps, photographs of the battlefield and surviving artefacts, and supported by an extensive bibliography and commentary, Chairōneia 338 BCE provides both a vivid account of one of antiquity's greatest battles and a wider study of the military and political revolution that ended the age of the independent Greek city-state and ushered in the age of Macedonian domination.

Also from

Fields, Nic

View All

Also in

General Military History

View All