The great majority of people became familiar with 300 who have bravely fought under the command of Leonidas of Sparta in thebattle of Thermopylae. In many respects, it is accepted as one of most epic and dramatic stories cited in various ancient sources. But what if there was another 300 as famous as their Spartan counterparts? Yes, we are exactly speaking of the Sacred Band of Thebes...
There seems to have been some troop of elite warriors in Thebes, numbering 300, prior to the formation of the Sacred Band who are referenced by Greek historians Herodotus and Thucydides , but the famous group was formed after 379 BCE when Pelopidas and other pro-democracy Theban exiles in Athens overthrew the Spartan oligarchy that had taken control of the citadel of Thebes in 382 BCE. Once the Spartans were driven from Thebes Gorgidas organized the Sacred Band.
Most likely Gorgidas was inspired by Plato’s famous passage concerning an army of pairs of lovers in his dialogue of the Symposium:
“ The last person a lover could bear to be seen by, when leaving his place in the battleline or abandoning his weapons, is his boyfriend; instead, he’d prefer to die many times. As for abandoning his boyfriend or failing to help him in danger – no one is such a coward that he could not be inspired into courage by love and made the equal of someone who’s naturally very brave.”
Yet Plutarch helps us and gives the most complete account of its creation and personnel:
“The sacred band, we are told, was first formed by Gorgidas, of three hundred chosen men, to whom the city furnished exercise and maintenance, and who encamped in the Cadmeia [citadel]; for which reason, too, they were called the city band; for citadels in those days were properly called cities. But some say that this band was composed of lovers and beloved. And a pleasantry of Pammenes is cited, in which he said that Homer’s Nestor was no tactician when he urged the Greeks to form in companies by clans and tribes, "that clan might give assistance unto clan, and tribes unto tribes" since he should have stationed lover by beloved. For tribesmen and clansmen make little account of tribesmen and clansmen in times of danger; whereas a band that is held together by the friendship between lovers is indissoluble and not to be broken, since the lovers are ashamed to play the coward before their beloved, and the beloved before their lovers, and both stand firm in danger to protect each other. Nor is this a wonder, since men have more regard for their lovers even when absent than for others who are present, as was true of him who, when his enemy was about to slay him where he lay, earnestly besought him to run his sword through his breast, "in order", as he said, "that my beloved may not have to blush at sight of my body with a wound in the back." It is related, too, that Iolaus, who shared the labors of Heracles and fought by his side, was beloved of him. And Aristotle says that even down to his day the tomb of Iolaus was a place where lovers and beloved plighted mutual faith. It was natural, then, that the band should also be called sacred, because even Plato calls the lover a friend "inspired of God". It is said, moreover, that the band was never beaten, until the Battle of Chaeronea.”
Indeed, The Sacred Band, comprised of 150 pairs of homosexual lovers. At this point we should place particular focus on homosexuality in ancient Greco-Roman world.
In ancient Greece and Rome, some homosexual relationships between men were accepted, or at least tolerated. However, the Greco-Romans were not tolerant of homosexuality in its entirety, as the term is commonly understood in the modern world. Sex between men did not carry much of a stigma in of itself – at least not for the top, or the one who penetrated. Exclusive bottoms – the ones penetrated – were often reviled, though. Effeminate behavior on the part of men jeopardized their social standing. Men could engage in homosexual sex, and still be respected so long as they were tough and manly. Effeminate gay men, however, were despised. In many cities, it was a rite of passage for elite males in their late teens to enter into a pederastic relationship with an older man. This relationship was probably sexual, but it was also pedagogical. The older man took on the dominant role of the erastes, or “the lover,” and the youth the subordinate role of the eromenos, or “the beloved.” Besides physical intimacy, the man would mentor the youth in philosophy, politics, and poetry. The Greeks did not conceive of sexual orientation in our terms .
Therefore there was no obstacle in front of forming up an elite military unit who would be devoted to each other, and would fight ferociously to protect their lovers and avoid dishonor or cowardice in their presence. They were spread out along the front ranks of the phalanx, or concentrated into a shock unit. Surprisingly Plato’s idea has fitted the practice and for decades, Thebes’ gay warriors were acknowledged as ancient Greece’s most elite fighters. They were able to crush even might phalanxes of Sparta. But there is an end for all, and their run of victories finally ended at the Battle of Chaeronea, 338. There, Thebes was decisively defeated by Philip II of Macedon and his son Alexander. Unfortunately Philip II of Macedon, had spent three years as a hostage in Thebes when he was young, beginning around 367 BCE, and had watched the successes of the Sacred Band and noted Epaminondas’ clever use of the phalanx. The Sacred Band was at this time under the command of one Theagenes, about whom nothing else is known, and held their ground against Alexander’s attack. They refused to surrender and continued fighting until the last of them fell. Plutarch writes:
“And when, after the battle, Philip was surveying the dead, and stopped at the place where the three hundred were lying, all where they had faced the long spears of his phalanx, with their armor, and mingled one with another, he was amazed, and on learning that this was the band of lovers and beloved, burst into tears and said: "Perish miserably they who think that these men did or suffered aught disgraceful."
The Sacred Band was buried on the battlefield and, later, the monument known as the Lion of Chaeronea was erected over their mass grave to honor these fallen heroes. It was a giant monument fitting their fierce reputation. Excavations of the site in the 19th century uncovered the skeletons of 254 men laid out in seven rows which have been identified as the remains of the Sacred Band. The trauma of their skeletons indicated brutal deaths and some of the pairs of corpses had arms linked together at the elbow. The statue was eventually pieced back together in 1902, and today, the Lion of Chaeronea can be seen near the site of the heroic last stand of the ancient world’s famous gay unit. The soldiers had died as they had lived: as devoted lovers, loyal to the end.
