Chaironia is located in Central Greece, 13.5 km from Livadeia, and owes its name to the mythical settler Chairon, son of Apollo and Thera. The city, whose habitation dates back to Neolithic times, for millennia, was the most important passage for Northern and Western Greece, as well as the Oracle of Delphi. From the Mycenaean period to the 4th c. e.g. it will know little periods of independence, while during the Roman period it will flourish as a producer of aromatic oils. The devastating earthquake of 551 AD will “validate” its decline, which had begun to take place since late antiquity. During the Frankish and Turkish rule, it has now become an insignificant town. Since 2011 it has been a Municipal District of the Municipality of Livadeia, with the modern settlement located in the same location as the homonymous ancient city.

The so characteristic and familiar, however, landscape of Boeotia, with its vast, green plains, “hides”, in its past, an exciting and decisive historical event. Chaeronea, which was to become famous as the site of important battles that sealed the fate of the Greek world, was, in 338 BC, the field of conflict between the Macedonian King Philip and the allied army of the southern Greeks, under the leadership of – officially – of Thebes and essentially of – now fallen – Athens and Demosthenes.

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