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Short description

The heirs of the immortal Sacred Band are among the best Hoplites in the world and would give their lives for Boiotia.

Description

These heirs of the immortal Sacred Band are among the best Hoplites in the world and would give their lives for Boiotia. Protected by scale armour and Linothorakes, these Hoplites wear a heavy Aspis depicting Poseidon with his trident as on a drachm from Thebes dated to the second half of the 3rd century BC (BMC 78). Well-trained as part of the federal army, these Hoplites may be garrisoned in the forts at Siphai, Chorsiai and Eleutherai, defend the member poleis of the League, or take to the field in pitched battles against foreign invaders such as the Macedonians, Aitolians or Galatians.

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Boiotia was a traditional “Hoplite country”. From the 5th century onwards, each of the eleven districts of the League had to provide 1,000 Hoplites for the confederate army (FGrH 66 = Hell. Oxy.). Their most famous hour came under Epaminondas the Theban, when they defeated the Spartans in the battles of Leuktra (371 BC) and Mantineia (362 BC). The Sacred Band especially mauled the famous Lakedaimonian Hippeis (the noble footguard of the kings), gaining eternal glory. Made up of 150 couples of male lovers, their esprit de corps was without comparison. Yet, at Chaironeia in 338 BC, the Sacred Band was overcome by the Macedonians - allegedly by a cavalry charge led by the then 18 year old crown prince Alexander, the future conqueror of the Persian Empire.

When Alexander followed his murdered father, Philip II, on the throne two years later, Thebes attempted to shake off the Macedonian hegemony over Greece and paid the ultimate price - only the priests and temples (Arr. Anab. I, 9, 9) as well as the family and the house of the famous poet Pindar (Plin. Nat. Hist. VII, 20, ) were spared by the victor. This was not the end of the Boiotian League, however. Other cities such as Thespiai, Orchomenos or Tanagra now grew in stature and filled the power vacuum left by the Thebans. In 315 BC, Cassander refounded the city, resettling many of the surviving Theban exiles (Parian Marble, l. 14). However, despite traditional enmities not just with other Boiotians but also with Athens and Lakedaimon, many Greek city states, from the Athenians to Megalopolis - once founded by Epaminondas as a bulwark against the Spartans - to several poleis in Magna Graecia, contributed to the rebuilding effort.

By 293 BC, Thebes had been fully re-integrated into the Boiotian League and once more supplied the federal army with a sizable contingent of Hoplites. This filled the Boiotians with the confidence to once more challenge Macedonian hegemony over central Greece. This time their enemy was Demetrios Poliorketes, who reacted in the way his nickname would suggest: he besieged Thebes in 293 and 292 BC, succeeding militarily the second time round, but treating the city and its citizens far more mildly than his role model Alexander had done. In 288 BC, the Boiotians were found on the side of Demetrios when he faced Pyrrhos of Epeiros in battle for the rule over Hellas, but Demetrios was eventually defeated and the Boiotian League gained greater autonomy. Despite shaky relationships with the Athenians - not least because the League had gained the important border city of Oropos - an alliance with Athens is attested to these years and the so-called ‘Cavalry Convention’ between Orchomenos and Chaironeia speaks of major military enterprises on Euboia.

In 280 BC, a large army of Gauls under the leadership of a certain Brennos invaded Greece. Similar to the Persians, these Celts were seen as a common threat to all Greeks, especially after they had overrun Macedon and killed the usurper king Ptolemaios Keraunos. A Hellenic League assembled a large army that occupied the pass of Thermopylai to defend Delphi against the ‘Barbarians’. The Boiotians sent 10,000 Hoplites (Paus. X, 20, 3), who contributed greatly to the victory. As inscriptions of the time suggest Boiotian Infantry adopted the Thureos (IG 7.2716; SEG 3.351), there is some scholarly debate about the difference between the Hoplites and Thureophoroi in Boiotia. While a number of inscriptions clearly mention Hoplites before the military reforms of the mid-3rd century (IG 7.2781; IThesp 88; IThesp 89; IThesp 90; IThesp 91; IThesp 93) Post (The Military Policy of the Hellenistic Boiotian League, Montreal 2012, p. 91) is probably right in suggesting they are the same and that they fought with either shield depending on the situation.

Protected by scale armour and Linothorakes, these Hoplites wear a heavy Aspis depicting Poseidon with his trident as on a drachm from Thebes dated to the second half of the 3rd century BC (BMC 78). Well-trained as part of the federal army, these Hoplites may be garrisoned in the forts at Siphai, Chorsiai and Eleutherai, defend the member poleis of the League, or take to the field in pitched battles against foreign invaders such as the Macedonians, Aitolians or Galatians. The proud traditions of Boiotia guarantee that these men are well trained and fight till the very end.