The was fought near
Chaeronea , in
Boeotia , in
86 BC during the
First Mithridatic War , between
Rome and King
Mithridates VI Of Pontus . The Roman forces of
Lucius Cornelius Sulla defeated the
Pontic forces of Archelaus.
Sulla, with about 30,000 men, moved to Beotia, seeking battle with Archelaus, who had assembled an army of 110,000 men and 90 chariots. In the first known offensive use of field fortifications, Sulla built entrenchments to protect his flanks against envelopment by the Mithridatic-Greek cavalry and erected palisades along the front of his position to provide protection against the chariots. The battle opened with a charge by the Mithridatis cavalry, some of whom where able to avoid the entrenchments and the palisades. Sulla, his legions formed into squares, easily repulsed the charge. The chariot attack was handled according to plan; the maddened horses that survived the Roman arrows and javelins dashed back through the phalanx, throwing it into confusion. Sulla immediately launched a combined infantry and cavalry counterattack and swept the foe from the field.
