A new exhibition entitled “Chaeronea, 2 August, 338 BC: A Day That Changed the World”, debuts today, Thursday, at the Museum of Cycladic Art in central Athens.
The exhibition, held in collaboration with the Greek culture ministry, is part of a new series of archaeological presentations called ‘Human Histories’.
The latest exhibition highlights the importance of the 4th century BC Battle of Chaeronea, marking what many historians consider the milestone in the transition from the Classical to the Hellenistic period.
The latter witnessed the rise of Hellenic civilization as the dominant cultural and political framework in the eastern Mediterranean and Near East for centuries, and laying the foundations of what developed into the Western world, according to the organizers.
The theme is the battle that pitted 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 Athenian citizen army – a conflict that coincided with the appearance of 18-year-old Alexander to the forefront of history.
Some 240 antiquities and historical items from 27 museums in Greece and abroad and four private collections are on exhibition.
