Sacred Band of Thebes

[Ghostmojo]

The most interesting thing to me is when the Sacred Band is moved from forming as a veneer of trained troops along the front of the phalanx to their own unit deployed on a more narrow front. I think this was to directly counter the Hippeis, which by that date may have been the only purely Spartiate unit on the battlefield.

Possibly - depending upon how large or small you consider a unit to be. In the early 4thC BC when The Sacred Band appears; Lakedaimonian armies certainly contained sections of Spartiates; other Spartans; Periokoi etc. - but I would guess that the smallest units or Enomotia (sworn bands) still had their basis in the communal mess of 32-36 men. Therefore, these smallest 'units' would still be Spartiate. How many of them remained pure up to the next level is again guesswork but I would argue that Pentekosties (72 men) could easily have been entirely Spartiate - and even further up to a Lokhos (144 men). After all, these units are still smaller than the Hippeis size.

Once we get up to a Mora the problem becomes more acute. Where they composed of separate entirely Spartiate and entirely Periokoi Lokhoi? Possibly/probably ...

But in apologising to the original poster who may feel their thread has been hijacked by Spartanophiles like us - I too have an interest in The Sacred Band of Thebes - not least its name. Was it borrowed from the Carthaginian unit of the same name?

Why was it considered 'sacred'? Did the Thebans sanctify institutional pederasty in such a manner?