There is no clear order of battle for the Greek army at Chaironeia in the ancient sources. We don't even know how large the army was. Diodoros (16.85.6) says that the Macedonian army (of 30,000 foot and 2,000 horse) was the larger of the two; but Justin's Epitome of Trogus says the opposite – "the Athenians were far superior in number of soldiers".
The following is from the notes to McQueen's 1998 translation of Diodoros XVI, page 160:
"In contrast to Diodorus, Justin states (9.3.9) that the Greeks were numerically superior. We have no independent confirmation of Diodorus' estimate for the strength of Philip's army and no figures at all for that of the Greek coalition. The Boeotians probably contributed the usual 7000 hoplites, but Athenian numbers are far less certain. In 394 they sent 6000 hoplites to Nemea (Xen. Hell. 4.2.17) and 5000 to Thebes both in 379/8 (Diod. 15.26.2) and in 377/6 (Diod. 15.32.6), while Polybius (2.62.6) refers to 12,000 soldiers (including presumably cavalry and peltasts as well as hoplites) for a full scale mobilisation in 369. (The figure of 20,000 alleged by Diodorus at 15.29.7 to have been called up in 369 is a gross exaggeration.) If the Athenians were able to muster 12,000 troops in 378, they should have been able to call up similar numbers in the emergency of 338, and of this number it would not be unreasonable to put the hoplite component at roughly 10,000. Thus the Boeotians and Athenians should have been able to rely on some 17,000 hoplites of their own for the Chaeronea campaign, and if the Corinthian, Euboean, Megarian, Achaean and Acarnanian contingents are included, a total of up to 25,000 hoplites as an estimate of the strength of the Greek coalition is indicated."
I think that perhaps the Boeotian contingent _might_ have been larger than the "usual" 7,000: the Boiotian Constitution described in the Hellenic Oxyrhynchia (which was probably that in force in 338) sets out a federal strength of 11,000 hoplites and 1100 cavalry (Thebes alone providing four of the eleven contingents). Though 7,000 was the usual hoplite figure mobilised, we cannot rule out a more complete than usual mobilisation in the face of a major invasion of Boiotia itself. They sent 10,000 hoplites to Thermopylai in 279, for example.The Theban hoplite contingent of course included the famous 300-strong Sacred Band.
The Athenian hoplite contingent would include their epilektoi, "picked men", an elite corps of citizen foot first mentioned in a campaign of 348. Perhaps 500 men? They would presumably be better trained than the rest of the Athenian hoplites, but nowhere near as good as the Theban Sacred Band. The Athenians may still have had a professional archer contingent as well.
As for cavalry, the Boiotians normally reckoned to field about one per ten hoplites, so 700 or more cavalry. The Athenian cavalry had a nominal strength of 1,000, in ten tribal squadrons, but Xenophon reckoned at one point a few decades before this battle that they were badly under strength, so there may have been more like 500. Of course we do not hear of any Greek cavalry in the brief accounts of the battle, so they may have sat behind the lines or else dismounted as hoplites. Both Boiotian and Athenian cavalry were probably supported by roughly equal numbers of hamippoi light infantry.
Regarding the lesser allied states, Plutarch's Life of Demosthenes says:
"Now was all Greece up in arms, and in great expectation what would be the event. The Euboeans, the Achaeans, the Corinthians, the Megarians, the Leucadians, and Corcyraeans, their people and their cities, were all joined together in a league. But the hardest task was yet behind, left for Demosthenes, to draw the Thebans into this confederacy with the rest."
Not all these "allies" necessarily turned up to the battle – Leukas and Korkyra, for example, were quite a long way away. We have the following testimonies scattered through Pausanias' "Guide to Greece":
- Achaians (7.6.5): "Of the wars waged afterwards by the confederate Greeks, the Achaeans took part in the battle of Chaeroneia against the Macedonians under Philip, but they say that they did not march out into Thessaly to what is called the Lamian war, for they had not yet recovered from the reverse in Boeotia."
So they probably suffered heavily.
- Arcadians (7.15.6): "It was then (in 146 BC) that the vengeance of the Greek gods overtook the Arcadians, who were slain by the Romans on the very spot on which they had deserted from the Greeks who were struggling at Chaeroneia against the Macedonians under Philip"; 8.6.2: "Though they did not fight on the Greek side against Philip and the Macedonians at Chaeroneia, nor later in Thessaly against Antipater, yet they did not actually range themselves against the Greeks".
So it looks like an Arcadian contingent was sent, got to Chaironeia, but then "deserted from the Greeks" without fighting. We don't know when they "deserted" – did they draw up in the battle-line or not?
- Phokis: Pausanias 10.3.4 says: "The Phocians took part in the battle of Chaeroneia, and afterwards fought at Lamia and Crannon against the Macedonians under Antipater."
There may also have been mercenaries. Aischines says that the Theban Proxenos and the Athenian Chares tried to block Philip's approach by seizing Amphissa with 10,000 mercenaries. Once the Macedonians broke through these presumably joined the main army. Can one really believe 10,000 mercenaries, or might the total have included some citizens too? If there are 10,000 mercenaries, it supports Justin's idea of significant Allied numerical superiority, but it seems a lot to me.
Some years ago on the old ancmed list I suggested that the following list was as likely as any:
300 Theban Sacred Band hoplites
7,000 other Boeotian hoplites
500 Athenian epilektoi hoplites (better than average)
9,000 other Athenian hoplites
500 Phokian hoplites
2,000 Euboian hoplites
2,000 Megarian hoplites
5,000 Corinthian hoplites
1,000 Achaian hoplites
1,000 Arkadian hoplites (apparently unreliable)
750 Boeotian hamippoi light infantry (brigaded with the cavalry)
500 Athenian hamippoi light infantry (brigaded with the cavalry)
500 Athenian archers
500 Phokian peltasts
5,000 mercenaries (to allow for both losses and exaggeration at Amphissa. Mostly peltasts.)
750 Boeotian cavalry
500 Athenian cavalry
Total: 35,550 foot and 1,250 horse
This is all a bit vague, but there is very little hard information available. I hope it helps.
