Chaeronea, 2 August 338BC: A day that changed the world

Bilingual (Greek-English) exhibition catalogue. Soft cover, 19x24 cm, 452 pp., rich ill. ISBN: 978-618-5060-46-6.

The exhibition highlights the importance the Battle of Chaeronea, at the transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period. The latter became an era in which Greek civilization was dominant for centuries and laid the foundations of what we call the Western world. The theme is the battle that opposed the Macedonian army of Philip II against that of the allied Greek cities of southern Greece – and in particular the Sacred Band of Thebes and the army of Athens – a conflict that for the first time brought the eighteen-year-old Alexander to the front line of history: Alexander who was soon to conquer the world with his great campaigns in Asia.

In addition, the exhibition presents the burial practices of the two armies: the Polyandrion (mass grave) of the 254 Theban members of the Sacred Band with their guardian monument of the Lion of Chaeronea, and the Tumulus of the Macedonians. Special emphasis is placed on the archaeological recovery of the aftermath of battle, highlighting the work of two pioneers of Greek archaeology at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th, namely Panagiotis Stamatakis and Georgios Sotiriadis.