How was Philip II able to defeat the Greeks?

Answer 1

Philip II and his Greek allies defeated the Athenians and their Greek allies on the battlefield of Chaeronea for the hegemony of Greece. Philip had brought peace to a war-torn Greece in 346 BC, by ending the Third Sacred War, and concluding his ten-year conflict with Athens for supremacy in the north Aegean, by making a separate peace. Demosthenes of Athens however, who harbored a grudge against Philip for humiliating him during a visit to the Macedonian court, began warning Athenians that Philip II wanted to take hegemony over Greece from Athens. Demosthenes convinced the Athenian assembly to sanction action against Philip's territories and to ally with Byzantium, which Philip was besieging. These actions were against the terms of their treaty oaths and amounted to a declaration of war. Diodorus provides the only formal account of the battle. He says that "once joined, the battle was hotly contested for a long time and many fell on both sides, so that for a while the struggle permitted hopes of victory to both."He then recounts that the young Alexander, "his heart set on showing his father his prowess" succeeded in rupturing the Athenian allied line aided by his companions, and eventually put the Athenian allies right wing to flight; meanwhile, Philip advanced in person against the Athenian allied left and also put it to flight. (Diodorus Source: Perseus Tufts)