Expansion of Macedonia under Philip II
The Third Sacred War (often just called 'the' Sacred War) broke out in 356 BC, and would present Philip with his first real opportunity to expand his influence into the affairs of central and southern Greece. The war was ostensibly caused by the refusal of the Phocian Confederation to pay a fine imposed on them in 357 BC by the Amphictyonic League, a pan-Greek religious organisation which governed the most sacred site in Ancient Greece, the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. Behind the religious element, there probably lay a display of "realpolitik" in bringing charges against the Phocians, instigated by the Thebans. At this time, Thebes controlled a majority of the votes in the council, and at the autumn meeting in 357 BC, the Thebans were able to have both the Phocians (for the cultivation of the sacred land) and the Spartans (for occupying Thebes some 25 years previously) denounced and fined. Since the fines for both parties were "unjustifiably harsh", the Thebans probably expected neither party to pay, and thus to be able to declare a "sacred war" on either.
Middle-earth wars and battles
The War of the Dwarves and Dragons was fought from the year 2570 to 2589 of the Third Age between the Dwarves of the Grey Mountains and the great fire-drakes that came down from the Northern Waste. After the Fall of Khazad-Dûm in T.A. 1981, the majority of those Dwarves who fled their downfallen kingdom escaped through the East Gate of Moria and into the vast lands of Rhovanion. These Dwarven refugees were under the leadership of Thráin I, grandson of Durin VI who had been killed the year earlier. The Dwarves of Khazad-Dûm had already had many well established mining colonies scattered throughout the lands east of the Misty Mountains, which included the colony of Erebor, the Lonely Mountain, as well as the rich mines and delvings in the "Ered Mithrin" to the far north. Thus it was that in the centuries that followed the greater part of the Dwarves relocated to their many halls in the Grey Mountains, which were rich in many ores, and they prospered and grew powerful in relative peace.