There's very little in Chaeronea worth seeing but it's a nice place to stop for a bit on your way to or from Delphi. This little town in the mountain has two claims to fame. First and most importantly it was the site of one of the most famous battles of the ancient world. The battle of Chaeronea took place between the forces of Philip of Macedon and the mainland Greeks. This lion here represents the spot where the celebrated Sacred Band fell. They're actually buried under this monument. The Sacred Band was an elite unit made up of 300 paired lovers who fought together in battle. the idea was that a man would be less likely to flee if he knew that he would leave his lover behind. As with so many things Greek it was extremely gay. They were very effective and mark the first significant tactical innovation since the creation of the hoplite. They assured Theban dominance of Greece, but only for a short while. Within thirty years Thebes was just one of many squabbling city-states. Recognizing the danger of the Macedonian advance they teamed up with the Athenians to meet Philip in battle. This resulted in their slaughter here high in the hills of Boeotia where they perished to a man. Philip's son Alexander made his first major appearance here where he crushed the Sacred Band with his troops. It's hard to imagine this quite town being the site of a battle but it happened twice, once in 338 BC against Philip and again in 86 BC with the Romans under Sulla fighting against Mithridates of Pontus. Chaeronea's other claim to fame is that it was the hometown of Plutarch, the famous biographer and philosopher.
The lion itself is nothing special. It's quite interesting as an example of Greek sculpture and it's great to see such sculpture
in situ (even if restored) but the artistry just isn't that impressive in itself. This little park here has nothing around it except for a small museum which appears to have been permanently closed.
The view opposite isn't that spectacular but it's cool to know that this is what the Macedonians would have seen 2300 years ago.
I don't know what's in the museum since it was closed but it didn't look very big. Chaeronea also has a theatre standing too although we didn't stop for it. This place was just a nice place to take a break on the way to Delphi. It wasn't too far out of the way and it was worth the trip. The way back to the main road through the Parnassos mountains was a tiny unpaved thing which had farmers walking their sheep across. The whole area seemed very quite and peaceful.
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