Units of History - The Sacred Band of Thebes DOCUMENTARY

the sacred band of thebes is one of the most famed units of antiquity often the first ones in and the last ones out of a fight they boasted a spectacular track record against formidable foes like the spartans besting them even when outnumbered this martial prowess was reportedly derived not only from their gear and training but also from the fact that the unit was actually composed of paired male lovers willing to die for one another and their police today let us dive deeper into the fascinating history of the sacred band of thebes i wanted to thank the audience for selecting this topic and helping to choose guy michaels as our wonderful narrator i also wanted to thank the great courses plus for sponsoring this video and serving as my go-to source for ancient history lectures they offer subscription-based on-demand lecture videos put together by top professors from renowned universities and specialists from places like national geographic and the smithsonian you get unlimited access to a huge library of over 11 000 videos which cover topics from history to science math and literature with new content being added every month their history playlist in particular is quite expansive with a huge 48 part series called the other side of history on daily life in the past to enrich our own content on the units of history definitely check out lecture 13 on being a greek soldier and sailor for me i found it best to download the app on my phone this allows me to swap from video to audio mode so i can listen to the series as a podcast while going about my daily activities right now the great courses plus is offering a free trial which you can start by clicking the link in the description below or visiting thegreatcoursesplus.com invicta i highly recommend that you take a look at what they have to offer and dive into the material that you are most interested in and now back to guy michaels thieves is an ancient city whose origin stretches back to the earliest days of greek history it stood on a rise in the plain of biosha upon whose cliffs was built one of the first fortified communities of the region legends speak of its founding by the hero cadmus and men born from dragon's teeth in addition many important greek myths are linked to the site which was the birthplace of figures like the god dionysus the hero heracles and the king oedipus in the bronze age a mycenaean palace occupied the heights of its acropolis which played a key role in cementing its control over the surrounding lands while biosha had no good natural harbours it had one of the broadest stretches of fertile plain of all its neighbors with agricultural riches that the other greek communities could only dream of the region was also famous for its plentiful wheat and for the number and quality of its horsemen thus thebes the city of seven gates began its rise to power while not the most populous greek police it was at least larger than any of the other cities in biosha and could easily dominate its neighbours in the absence of any external assistance for much of greek history this relationship was formalized in a federation known as the biotian league the smaller states technically had a vote in the decisions of the league proportional to their share of the army but in practice it was really thebes which called the shots when united bioshock was a formidable land power with a militia comparable to that of athens in numbers of both hoplites and cavalry this strength would prove important as the oceans would clash frequently with their neighbors in attica when the persians invaded in the 5th century bc some northern greeks fought them at thermopylae while the rest were forced to submit and join them eventually when the southern greek cities proved victorious thebes would be punished however this ostracizing was relatively short-lived as the ensuing peloponnesian war saw them actually join up with the spartans to fight the athenians yet this alliance too would prove ephemeral when it was the spartans who next emerged victorious the thebans would find themselves joining the opposition to counter the new rising power for example during the devastating corinthian war of 395-386b thebes and the ocean league had been powerful members of the anti-spartan alliance alongside athens corinth and argos when the war ended in a stalemate the spartans decided to use the terms of the peace to kneecap their opponents and break thieban power this so-called king's peace declared that no greek state could be subject to another every policy had to be independent armed with the letter of the treaty sparta went around dismantling many alliances and federations that it considered a threat one of these was the beyocean league which sparta declared to be in violation of the king's peace since the smaller states of the league were effectively subjects of thebes [Music] in 381 bc a spartan army moved north to dismantle the calcitin league on its way however it suddenly detoured to seize control of the cadmia the acropolis of thebes the invaders helped raise an oligarchic faction to power driving the democratic faction into exile now thieves would be ruled by a group favorable to sparta and propped up by a peloponnesian garrison but this spartan-instigated coup was widely seen as an injustice and an act of imperialism athens still stinging from their previous loss was no fan of sparta and gave shelter to the exiles from thebes two years later a group of these exiles led by a theban noble named pilipidas made their way back home they infiltrated a party murdered the oligarchs and kicked out the spartan garrison under a truce thus democracy was restored and the city began to reassert its control over the surrounding lands the spartans were outraged and it was clear to all that their vengeance would be swift and merciless the city needed a strong force to lead the defense it is from this moment of crisis that the sacred band a standing unit of 300 picked hoplites was born its founding was meant to provide a reliable backbone for the new democratic regime and its militia army it was therefore composed of older members of the theban social elite who were most loyal to the returning exiles these men then selected the best and toughest young warriors of the militia to fight by their side unfortunately the unit only existed for 40 years from 378 to 338 bc in a period of greek history that is not very well documented most of our information including the unit name comes from a single source plutarch's biography of the sacred band's most famous commander pelopidus but we should remember that plutarch was writing nearly 500 years later and we're not always sure if we can trust what he says for instance it is plutarch who tells us that the sacred band was made up of 150 pairs of male lovers claiming that their strength in battle came from the fact that each of them would rather die than let their lover down however we're not quite sure where he got this bit of information since sources from the time don't actually say anything about it we can discuss two plausible explanations the first is that plutarch was indeed reporting things correctly after all there was a rather widespread practice of pederasty among greek elites and pretty much every army would have contained at least some number of male couples it's possible that this sacred band simply had a higher proportion of couples than normal owing to the nature of its formation as a unit of mature elite citizens and their hand-picked young favorites the second explanation is that plutarch's description is based not so much in fact as it is in cultural ideas and myths for instance it is plutak who tells us that the hero heracles had many male lovers and that in the author's own time male couples would come to thebes to swear oaths of loyalty at the tomb of one of these consults given the close association between thebes and heracles it would make sense for plutarch to describe the famed sacred band as having similar sexual tastes as their mythic hero applying this to a whole unit was also not something entirely alien as the idea was actually a fairly common thought experiment put forth in some philosophical dialogues but either way fact or fiction we can't know for sure with that being said let's move on to discussing something we do know a bit more about their equipment as far as we can tell the sacred band were equipped like regular 4th century bc hoplites for defense this most likely meant donning a simple tunic line a thorax armor or a muscled carass the legs may have sported a pair of greaves while the head was protected with a simple conical pylos helmet or an attic helmet as with most greek heavy infantry they also bore a large aspis shield which covered them from their shoulder to their knee these would have sported a variety of different designs and colours as there was no prescribed uniform however many probably had the club of heracles emblazoned on their shields given the hero's status as the patron of thebes and the protector of warriors there may also have been a slight preference for the use of white xenophon says thieban cavalry or whitewashed helmets in terms of offense things were again quite standard their main weapon would have been a 2 to 2.5 meter long spear with a flat leaf-shaped iron head on one end and a bronze butt spike on the other back up short swords and daggers were likely also used [Music] in terms of training the theban state paid for the sacred band to be permanently garrisoned in barracks on the acropolis of cadmium where they spent their days preparing for war but what exactly did this entail unfortunately our sources only really mention exercise in a generic way without bothering to specify any more details this actually ends up being quite common with most references we have to hoplite training from this and other clues it appears that general fitness was more valued than any specific weapons training therefore hoplite training would have involved lots of running wrestling and mental preparation after all soldiers had to be able to endure both the hardship of campaigns and the terror of battle they had to be agile resilient selfless restrained and brave it's possible that the sacred band may also have picked up some basic formation drill like the spartans though we have no explicit evidence of this in terms of tactics on the battlefield they were deployed as the front rank of the phalanx which is a modification on the deployment of other elite infantry which might be grouped together in their own separate formation these were hardened unflinching fighters behind which the rest of the theban militia would rally and stand their ground this was a crucial role in an age when many greek hoplites fled at the mere sight of an advancing spartan phalanx the sacred band the pride of their city would not flee and set a strong example for the rest to follow however the intended purpose of the sacred band changed as the thebans came to realize just how powerful the unit could be since it was relatively small it could be moved around quickly on the battlefield to respond more easily to changing conditions either in a defensive or offensive capacity this flexibility extended far beyond the battlefield as a permanent standing unit the sacred band was always available to respond to emergencies anywhere in bioshock it quickly evolved into a jack of all trades and could serve as anything from a fire brigade to a self-contained mobile strike force at home and abroad let's now turn to a discussion on their service history as we mentioned at the start the sacred band of thebes began their career just before the start of the ocean war in 378 bc the unit's first commander was a theban named gorgonas who had actually helped found the group and served as one of the generals or botox of the be ocean league however command soon passed to the younger palapidus hero and leader of the exiles who had restored the autonomy of thebes his career would prove highly successful when war broke out with sparta the sacred band spent much of their time protecting local farmland against enemy incursions and keeping the smaller towns of biosha in line however in 375 bc they would get their first opportunity to truly shine in this instance pelopedus was leading the sacred band and a unit of theban cavalry to expel a spartan garrison during these maneuvers however they ran into an enemy force two to three times their size by the town of tagura when one of the soldiers began to despair we are fallen into our enemies hands palopidus is said to have replied and why not they into ours with that he commanded his cavalry to disrupt the enemy and had the 300 men of the sacred band form up into a tight formation and follow up with a charge this bold strategy killed the spartan commanders throwing the enemy forces into disarray apparently the sacred band then managed to infiltrate the gaps that the spartans opened up in their lines destroying the enemy formation from the inside the result was a bloody carnage the spartan army was driven from the field making it the first recorded instance of their defeat by a numerically inferior force in a set piece battle this achievement would only be outshined four years later in 371 bc at the battle of luctra here a full ocean army of about eight thousand faced off against a spartan king and his larger army of around eleven thousand from plutarch we learned that the sacred band was present and that they were first into the fray most likely this means that they would have resumed their old role of acting as the front rank of the theban phallics however seeing that the spartan king was stationed on the enemy right the commander epamanandas shifted his best troops to face him directly behind them were stacked additional soldiers such that they were now 50 ranks deep over four times that of the enemy joining them were massed cavalry forces while the rest of the army was deployed in a staggered formation off to the right this echeloned battle order was a brilliant strategy meant to overwhelm the enemy's best forces while delaying the engagement elsewhere on the battlefield when battle began the concentration of forces proved extremely effective it crashed against the spartan right dealing heavy losses hundreds of spartans were killed including their king cleonbrotus his highest-ranking officers and many in the royal guard in short order this implosion of the command structure led to a complete collapse of the rest of the army the triumph shattered the streak of spartan supremacy and heralded the ascendancy of thebes for the next few decades however the role of the sacred band is unknown they appear once in bc as the vanguard of a theban assault on corinth which was eventually thrown back by light troops at the wall beyond that we know nothing of their role in thebes's wars in the peloponnese and thessaly nor in the third sacred war that devastated bioshock in fact the only other action of the sacred band that we're sure about was their last in 338 bc philip ii of macedon led his army south in a bid to exert power over mainland greece when a theban athenian alliance gathered to stop him at kyronia the sacred band would take up position on the right of the army's battle line however they would be facing macedonian troops led by a young 18 year old prince named alexander when battle began plutarch says the unit was skewered on the spikes of enemy infantry but many scholars believe that alexander broke and trampled them with a unit of cavalry a feat that would become one of his signature moves in later campaigns the sacred band fought to the last man but were entirely wiped out this would be the first and only time they were defeated in open battle we are told that philip wept when he saw the 300 bodies of the sacred band heaped together moved to tears by their courage and loyalty he cried out a miserable death to those who think these men did or suffered anything disgraceful we hope you've appreciated this deep dive into the history of the sacred band a huge thanks is out to our supporters on patreon and the many talented researchers writers and artists who made this video possible please consider contributing to fund future content and let us know what units of history you want to see covered next thanks for watching you

Channel: Invicta

Views: 171,280

Rating: 4.9212446 out of 5

Keywords: units of history, sacred band, sacred band of thebes, sacred band of carthage, history documentary, thebes, peloponnesian war, peloponnesian war documentary, greco persian wars, greek history, greek history documentary, spartan army, battle of leuctra documentary, battle of tegyra, battle of cynoscephalae, battle of cynoscephalae documentary, macedonian arm, philip ii of macedon, alexander the great

Id: xWsZwlN1j3c

Length: 18min 50sec (1130 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 26 2020