Assus, took up his position under Mount Edylium.  Here he encamped opposite Archelaus, who, having also crossed the Assus, was now at a place called Assia, which was nearer Lake Copais.  Thence Archelaus made an attempt on Chaeroneia; but Sulla was again beforehand with him, and garrisoned the place with one legion.  South of Chaeroneia was a hill called Thurium.  This Archelaus seized.  Sulla then brought the rest of his troops across the Cephissus, to form a junction with the legion in Chaeroneia and dislodge the enemy from Thurium.  He left Murena on the north of the Cephissus to keep the enemy in check at Assia.  Archelaus, however, also brought his main army across the Cephissus after Sulla.  Murena followed him, and Sulla drew up his army with his cavalry on each wing, himself commanding the right and Murena the left.  The armies were now opposite each other, Sulla to the south, then Archelaus, then the Cephissus.

[Sidenote:  Battle of Chaeroneia.] Sulla sent some troops round Thurium to the hills behind Chaeroneia, and in the enemy’s rear.  The enemy ran down in confusion from Thurium, where they were met by Murena with Sulla’s left wing, and were either destroyed or driven back upon the centre of the line of Archelaus, which they threw into disorder.  Sulla on the right advanced so quickly as to prevent the scythed chariots from getting any impetus, by which they were rendered useless, for the soldiers easily eluded them when driven at a slow pace, and as soon as they had passed killed the horses and drivers.  Archelaus now extended his right wing in order to surround Murena.  Hortensius, whom Sulla had posted on some hills to the left of his left wing on purpose to defeat this manoeuvre, immediately pressed forward to attack this body on its left flank.  But Archelaus drove him back with some cavalry, and nearly surrounded Hortensius.

[Illustration:  First position of the two armies at CHAERONEIA.] [Illustration:  Second position of the two armies at CHAERONEIA.]

Sulla hastened to his aid, and Archelaus, seeing him coming, instantly counter-marched and attacked Sulla’s right in his absence, while Taxiles assailed Murena on the left.  But Sulla hastened back, too, after leaving Hortensius to support Murena, and, when he appeared, the right wing drove back Archelaus to the Cephissus.  Murena was equally triumphant on the left wing, and the barbarians fled pell-mell to the Cephissus, only 10,000 of them reaching Chalcis in Euboea. [Sidenote:  Sulla’s falsehood about the battle.] Appian says the Romans lost only thirteen men, while Plutarch, on the authority of Sulla’s Memoirs, says that they lost four.  This is absurd.  Sulla seems to have told some startling lies in his Memoirs, perhaps to prove that he had been the favourite of fortune, which was a mania of his.