Sacred Band of Thebes

The Sacred Band of Thebes (Ancient Greek: Ἱερὸς Λόχος τῶν Θηβῶν, Hieròs Lóchos tôn Thēbôn) was an elite heavy infantry of select soldiers consisting of 150 pairs of male couples, 300 men total, organised by age that formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC. It was first organised under commander Gorgidas in 378 BC and later Pelopidas, and played a crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra. It was annihilated by Philip II of Macedon and young Alexander the Great in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.

Formation

The earliest surviving record of the Sacred Band by name was in 324 BC, in the oration Against Demosthenes by the Athenian logographer Dinarchus. He mentions the Sacred Band as being led by the general Pelopidas and, alongside Epaminondas who commanded the army of Thebes (Boeotia), were responsible for the defeat of the Spartans at the decisive Battle of Leuctra (371 BC).

Plutarch (46–120 AD), a native of the village of Chaeronea, is the source of the most substantial surviving account of the Sacred Band. He records that the Sacred Band was originally formed by the boeotarch Gorgidas, shortly after the expulsion of the Spartan garrison occupying the Theban citadel of Cadmea. The 2nd century AD Macedonian author Polyaenus in his Stratagems in War also records Gorgidas as the founder of the Sacred Band. However, Dio Chrysostom (c. 40–120 AD), Hieronymus of Rhodes (c. 290–230 BC), and Athenaeus of Naucratis (c. 200 AD) credit Epaminondas instead.