Apr 26, 2021
Comprising a hundred and fifty male couples, Thebes’s Sacred Band was undefeated until it was wiped out in 338 B.C. In the nineteenth centur
In lieu of a poem, today I post a link to this short piece about the Scared Band of Thebes.
This was well before the era of "Don't ask; don't tell" in military recruitment.
The Sacred Band had a prominent role in the defeat of the Spartans at Leuctra (371 BCE) and, hence, in the foundation of Messene.
This unit, comprised of 150 pairs of lovers, fought bravely in every engagement it participated in until it was practically exterminated at the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BCE), which brought Philip II of Macedon, and his son - known to history as Alexander the Great - to undisputed primacy in Greece.
