Sacred Band of Thebes

The Sacred Band was an elite unit of the ancient Theban forces, which consisted of 150 male couples in love and was founded by the Theban commander Gorgidas. She put the core of the Theban phalanx dar.

There were only selected pairs of lovers in order to maximize the cohesion of the troops. However, the combat power of the unit is likely to be incurred rather the fact that the members were professional soldiers - the only full-time Bürgerhopliten except those of Sparta. So they joined the professional aspect of the mercenary with that of the ancient citizen who was motivated by ideals. This second aspect should be strengthened by the strong binding to the personal comrades. The idea was a few decades later, a counterpart in the companions walk of Alexander the Great.

Already under Gorgidas formed the Sacred Band an elite unit within the Theban troops. Later, under Pelopidas, after the Sacred Band had won at Tegyra, it was a kind of personal bodyguard of Pelopidas and played an important role in Greek infantry for 33 years. Also in the battle of Leuctra had the Sacred Band of Thebes large share of the victory over Sparta.

Beaten and almost completely destroyed (up to 46 man) was the Sacred Band at the Battle of Chaeronea - the battle with Philip II of Macedon ended the independence of the Greek city-states.