First Mithridatic War - The Chaeroneia Campaign

The Chaeroneia Campaign

Even after Sulla seized Peiraieus, Archelaos persisted in exploiting his command of the sea lanes, holding position off Mounychia with his fleet and preventing any food or materiel reaching the city or the Roman army by sea.
By the early spring Archelaos' strategy was biting hard. Rocky Attica provided good security for operations against the large Pontic cavalry forces massed in Macedonia, but it was infertile and notoriously incapable even of fully supporting the population of the astu, let alone the large Roman army in addition, with no imports coming in by sea.

Early in the spring of 86 BC Taxiles concentrated most of his troops, sent word to Archelaos to join him in the Magnetic ports, and marched south from Macedonia into Thessaly. Archelaos rejected the suggestion. He was the senior officer and preferred to persist with his blockade of Attica. Thessaly was only held by a modest Roman observation force under the legatus L. Hortensius, elder brother of Q.Hortensius the orator. But despite his great energy and reputation as an experienced vir militaris, there was little Hortensius could do against the enormous disproportion of the forces descending upon him, other than gather together some Thessalian auxiliary units he had been commissioned to recruit, and fall back southwards.
In about April 86 BC, beginning to run short of supplies and increasingly anxious about L. Hortensius' safety, Sulla took the bold decision to quit Attica and march into the fertile plains of Boiotia to feed his army, but also expose it to the great cavalry strength of the Pontic army.
In Boiotia, Sulla met and defeated Archelaos in the Battle of Chaeronea (86 BC). This move gave Archelaos little choice but to sail northward and link up with Taxiles. After being defeated by Sulla in the Battle of Orchomenus, Greece was fully restored to Roman rule.