Sacred Band of Thebes

[Paullus Scipio]

Stefanos wrote:-

In the first year of the Pelloponisian War the Theban logadae (hieros lochos) sneacked night into Platea to force constitutional change and put the city into alliance with Thebes. Down came and the Plateans counterattacked while their women threw roof tiles from the tops of the houses. The unit was wiped out. Perhaps never reconstituted because of their ignominus end.

Why do you think this ? As far as I know, Plutarch states that the 'Hieros Lochos'( lit: Holy Company/Sacred Band) was founded by Gorgidas ( see above quote), around 379 BC, inspired by Plato's reference to the strength of bonds between lovers in the Symposion written some time after 385 BC, as recounted by Pammenes......so they did not exist as early as 431 BC, if Plutarch is correct.

Furthermore the Theban troops who take Plataea, that Thucydides refers to, number 300 it is true, but he calls them simply "the advance party" ( with a main body following)....there is no reference to 'Sacred Band', so do you know of some other reference to 'Hieros Lochos' prior to 379 BC, which would make Plutarch's statement erroneous? ?

Bodies of 300 on special missions seem to frequently occur also ( c.f. Leonidas 'advance party' and the many other references to Spartan bodies of 300 who are not the Hippeis/Royal Guard)

.........'wiped out' is also a little brief in discussing their fate. The 'advance party' are admitted by Plataean sympathisers in the dead of night, and await the main force. The Plataeans, once they recover from their surprise, attack them and shut them in the city. They are not wiped out initially - a few fall in battle , some escape over the walls while others die in falls attempting to do so. The largest group rush into a building abutting the wall, thinking it a Gatehouse and become trapped, and along with various small groups and individuals, are taken prisoner, amounting to over 180 in all. The main body having set out from Thebes eight miles away are delayed by rain and the swollen River Asopus, and arrive too late.
The Plataeans withdraw inside their walls over the next day or two and the Thebans withdraw, having failed to secure hostages to ransom the prisoners with.
As a punishment for their treacherous attack in Peace time, the Plataeans put the impious Thebans to death.....
Paltaea's strategic importance was that it stood on Mount Cithaeron and dominated the road south from Boeotia to the Peloponnese and Corinth, and Thebes launched this treacherous attack because the Plataeans were traditional allies of Athens, and largely anti-Theban.
When the Persians landed in Attica in 490, the full Plataean levy, numbering about 1,000 men, came to the aid of Athens and fought at Marathon. In 479, Greek forces under Pausanias defeated the invading Persian army of Mardonius on the slopes of Cithaeron below Plataea, decisively crushing Persian ambitions on the Greek mainland. Thereafter the Plataeans offered sacrifice annually to Zeus the Liberator in honour of the Greek dead, and Plataea was declared inviolable by Pausanias, the Spartan King. Hence the impiety of the Theban attackers. Nonetheless, the city was attacked by Thebans as related above(431), then by Spartans (429), who finally razed it in 427. Thebes occupied the site until 387, then destroyed it again in 373.
Athens harboured the survivors until the Macedonian kings Philip II and Alexander III the Great rebuilt Plataea after 338 as a symbol of Greek courage in resisting Persia.( and Thebes in turn was razed by Alexander)....