The Sacred Band of Thebes.mov

Описание: THE SACRED BAND OF THEBES
Threatened by the enormous military might of the Persian Empire, the Hellenic states banded together to defend their homeland in 490 and 480 BCE. For the rest of the fifth century, the hegemony of Hellas was contested by the Spartans and Athenians and their respective allies. This rivalry culminated in the Peloponnesian war (431-404), and was finally decided by the intervention of the Persian King, who bankrolled the Spartan fleet which cut off the Athenians' food supply and forced the surrender of Athens.
By 396, the Spartans had turned on their former benefactors. Hard pressed by the wily Spartan King Agesilaos, the Great King of Persia bribed a coalition of Hellenic states, including Athens, to take up arms against the Spartans, who were then forced to recall Agesilaos. This resulted in the Korinthian war (394-386), and the Persian-brokered peace of Antalkidas, from which Sparta emerged as the predominant power in Hellas.
On the way to Khalkidike in the northeast of Hellas, the Spartan Phoibidas managed to seize the akropolis of Thebes, called the Kadmeia. For three years, a Spartan- backed oligarchy ruled Thebes. In the winter of 379, Theban refuges overthrew the oligarchs in a bloody coup. This initiated the Boiotian war between Thebes and Sparta and their allies. It was at this time that the Sacred Band of Thebes was formed by Gorgidas in accordance with the prevailing theory that the strongest phalanx would be formed of male couples.
While the story of the Sacred Band of Thebes is well known and the Band itself is mentioned in almost every history of Greece, there exists no complete chronological account of its formation, activities, and eventual destruction. Using the ancient sources, some of which refer only obliquely to the Sacred Band, the author attempts to present a linear history of this elite military unit.

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