The Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC: Historical tradition in the context of national mentality

The aim of the research is to identify the continuity of preserved information about the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC in the sources and to determine the factors that influenced the specific features of the battle’s representation. The article examines the historical tradition of describing the Battle of Chaeronea, which marked the end of Greece’s independent existence. Such a significant moment in history has not found sufficient coverage in the sources. As a rule, authors limit themselves to individual mentions of the course of the battle. The novelty of the work lies in the fact that the authors of the article have considered the preserved materials about the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC in the context of the national Greek mentality, primarily taking into account the idea of the opposition between Greeks and barbarians. As a result of the research, the authors came to the conclusion that the lack of a detailed description of the battle is connected with the formation of a negative image of the Macedonian king Philip II, which was initially spread through the works of Demosthenes and Theopompus, and then with the deliberate omission of this event in the works of later authors.