Antipater and Craterus now march their combined…
322 BCE
Antipater and Craterus now march their combined army south to force the Greeks to battle.
The Greeks, after calling together their dispersed forces in September 322, meet the Macedonians near Crannon in Thessaly.
The Athenian general Antiphilus, relying on the high reputation of the Thessalian horse, decides, as in the battle with Leonnatus, to try to win the battle with cavalry.
The battle therefore opens with the clash of the Athenia-led and Macedonian cavalry.
With the cavalry of both sides occupied, Antipater orders his infantry to charge the Greek line.
The Greek infantry is driven back by the more numerous Macedonians and withdraw to the high ground from where they can easily repulse any Macedonian assault.
The Greek cavalry, seeing their infantry in retreat, disengages from the battle, leaving the field and victory in Macedonian hands.
While the Athenian-led army is still intact, it is clear that the Macedonians have gained the advantage in the war.
Antiphilus, after conferring with his cavalry commander Menon of Pharsalus, therefore sends an embassy to Antipater the next day asking for terms.
Antipater, however, refuses to conclude any general peace with the Athenian-led alliance as a whole, insisting instead that each city send its own ambassadors.
While these terms are at first rejected, the subsequent Macedonian capture of several Thessalian cities causes a rush of defections as each city strives to make a separate peace.
Athens, abandoned by her allies, is at last forced to surrender unconditionally.
In the peace imposed by Antipater, the Athenians are forced to accept a Macedonian garrison as well as a replacement of democracy with an oligarchy under the leadership of Phocion.
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