June
02
/ 2021
The Sacred Band of Thebes was an elite fighting unit consisting of 300 Theban soldiers who were not only warriors but coupled lovers as well. According to the scholar Plutarch, the creation of the unit took place sometime between 379 and 378 BC, the brainchild of Gorgidas, a military leader who believed that those who were lovers would fight more ferociously to keep each other alive than those who were not. It was General Pelopidas that then structured this elite unit of coupled lover soldiers into a formidable fighting force which went on to gain the respect of all of late-classical Greece. Their existence spanned forty years, from 378 to 338 BC, and their legacy lives on even today. Long-Lasting
