The Sacred Band - A Short Review

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Recently joined Book Outlet.ca as an alternative  book seller to Amazon. Not only is it a Canadian company but offers substantial cost savings. In this time of tariff and sovereignty threats from America I am supporting Canadian businesses as much as possible.

I purchased The Sacred Band by James Romm as a followup read to Paul Cartledge's book Thebes. The city state of Thebes in ancient Greece has traditionally been a "poor cousin" to rivals Athens and Sparta but played a major role in antiquity, eventually forming the Boeotian League and becoming a dominate power until the Macedonian conquest in 338 BC.

The title of the book refers to the existence of an elite hoplite unit of the Thebian army comprised of 150 same sex couples. Male eros was open, accepted and embraced within Theban society and the Sacred Band became the hammer of the army, being instrumental in the Spartan defeat at Leuctra in 371bc.

That said the Sacred Band is not the entire focus in this well researched history of Thebes and the rise and fall of the Boeotian league. This is an excellent read on the decline of Spartan hegemony, the rise of Thebes under Epaminondas and the emergence of Macedonia under Phillip and Alexander during which the Sacred Band played an important military role.

Informative and recommended.

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