A battle that determined the fate of the world. An army of male couples ready to sacrifice themselves for each other. The majestic statue of a huge lion, erected in eternal memory of their bravery. A Secret Victorian Order founded to promote gay rights and societal acceptance. But what is the connection between all of these…
Summer, 338 B.C. On a narrow plain in central Greece, two armies of approximately 30,000 – 35,000 men each stand face to face, ready to fight a battle which would both decide the fate of Hellas and become a turning point in ancient history. The name of the plain is Chaeronea and there, Philip, King of Macedonia struck a decisive blow on the independence of the Greek city-states.
Under this great king, the small kingdom of Macedonia, with a mostly pastoral population, turned into a formidable military power that managed to unite the rest of Greece, thus laying the foundations of the future empire which was to be created by Philip’s son, Alexander the Great. An empire that would extend from Greece to Egypt, encompassing the entire Persian Empire, reaching as far away as India.
The chain of events which lead to this denouement can be said to have started when Philip was a young man, a prisoner in the city of Thebes. His older brother, the king of Macedonia, had sent him there with other young Macedonian nobles to guarantee peace and the alliance between Macedonia and Thebes. The city of Thebes was then at its peak from a military point of view, managing to dominate the rest of Greece but above all, to defeat the powerful armies of Sparta, considered to be the best trained, almost invincible in battle. These victories were due to the reforms and new military tactics implemented by two great Theban leaders, Epaminondas and Pelopidas. During captivity, which, admittedly, was not at all severe, as the prisoners were accommodated by good families in Thebes, Philip, who had a military genius and a spirit of learning and observation even as a young man, was also housed and educated by the great philosopher-general, Pammenis. Philip learned from the latter the military tactics which he was later to improve and reorganize the Macedonian army, getting in his turn to dominate Greece and create the basis for Alexander the Great’s future conquests.
Pammenis is said to have been a great advocate of love (eros) between two men, an older one, the master, and a younger one, the apprentice. This type of relationship was not reproved in ancient Greece, on the contrary, in certain regions it was even encouraged as a method of educating and maturing of young future citizens and fighters. For these reasons, many voices claimed that during the period when Philip was under the supervision of Pammenis, such a homosexual relationship developed between them. However, we will never know how believable this story is. It is however certain that Pammenis was a valuable general and a conservative politician and Philip fully benefited from his knowledge.
The Sacred Band of Thebes
According to the ancient historian Plutarch, the Sacred Band was an elite unit of 150 couples of lovers, based on this love between men and guiding of the young warrior by the mature one. Plutarch tells us that it was founded by Gorgidas in 379 B.C., when Thebes shook off Spartan occupation. However, Diodorus Siculus attests to the existence of the Sacred Battalion as early as 424 B.C. It seems however that it was Gorgidas who reorganized the unit and made it famous by using, apart from innovative military tactics and bravery of its fighters, a secret weapon: love. According to Plutarch “Some say this system was created by lovers and companions”, a military unit based on the love and friendship between the two lovers makes impossible the abandoning of weapons during battle. These will tenaciously fight to their death to protect their mate and in case one of them dies, the other will fight to death to defend the body of the fallen one. Moreover, neither of them would want to embarrass the other by showing cowardice during the fight. Not just Plutarch but also many other ancient historians support this theory and many often mention Thebes as one of the city-states of ancient Greece where relationships between mature and young men were encouraged.
It is certain that the Sacred Battalion was the storm troop and the main factor in the decisive defeats suffered by the legendary Spartan hoplites, the armies of Thebes being the only ones to come close to Sparta, which no army had dared to threaten until then.
The Battle of Chaeronea
Yet, it all ended in this fateful battle in 338 B.C. Philip, already Philip II of Macedonia, had formed a formidable kingdom and an army which had begun to score one victory after another, and started to get involved in the affairs and wars of the Greek city-states, especially in the conflicts concerning the oracle of Delphi. When Philip unexpectedly and easily occupied the city of Amphissa and then reached the city of Elatea, three days’ march from Athens, the citizens of Athens panicked and sent Demosthenes, the famous orator and anti-Macedonian fanatic, to Thebes. He managed to convince the Thebans to join the alliance being formed against Philip. Thus, the united armies of Athens, Thebes and other cities supporting the common cause, set out to meet the Macedonian phalanxes in the plain of Chaeronea.
Once again, the battle highlighted Philip’s military genius. He placed himself on the right flank, at the head of some Macedonian elite fighters, called hypaspistai, a word that in Greek means “shield carriers”. Apparently, this unit was armed in the style of hoplites, and played a pivotal role in protecting the flank of the heavy Macedonian phalanx. Philip and the Hypaspists were facing the Athenian fighting corps, which, although it had a high morale, lacked combat experience. In the centre, he placed the pride of the Macedonian army and Philip’s winning innovation, the phalanx. This was a formidable fighting unit made up of thousands of highly trained and highly disciplined soldiers moving in unison in tight formation. Their main weapon was the “sarissa”, a spear 5 to 6 meters long, weighing about 8 kilograms. In order to be handled relatively easily, it had a counterweight on the back and, because it required the use of both hands, the shield was significantly smaller than that of the hoplites and had no crown so that it could be carried on the shoulder. The rest of the armour, especially for the front ranks, consisted of a plate, a Phrygian / Thracian type helmet with beard and/or moustache-shaped cheek guards and bronze cnemides (greaves). They were placed in 16 rows, the first 5 coming into contact with the enemy and the others being raised up as a protection against the waves of projectiles thrown at them. On the left flank he placed the cavalry led by his son, only 18 years old, Prince Alexander. Yes, that Alexander, the one who would become “the Great”. Philip began the attack against the Athenians who reacted strongly by repulsing him and forcing the Hypaspists to retreat in an orderly fashion. One of the Athenian generals, Stratoklis, gained confidence and led his soldiers to attack shouting “Es Makedonian”, i.e. push the Macedonians back into Macedonia. But the retreat was actually a trap set by Philip. By moving forward the Athenians broke the alignment of the entire army, thus creating a gap between them and the center defended by the Thebans. This space was quickly exploited by Alexander, who poured his heavy cavalry into it, creating panic among Thebans and forcing them to retreat. The only ones who held their ground – and were killed to the last one – were the fighters of the Sacred Band. The battle was lost for the Allies. Many died and some surrendered but most fled. Among them the orator Demosthenes who had fought as a mere hoplite but who threw down his shield and fled when he saw that all was lost. Philip, satisfied with the victory, and wishing to avoid a massacre of his adversaries, with whom he hoped to make peace after the battle, ordered the cavalry not to pursue the fugitives.
As he was visiting the battlefield afterwards, Philip noticed the hierolochists of the Sacred Battalion, killed on the very spot they were defending, still steadfast, keeping their lines tight even in death. Then, with tears in his eyes, he said: “Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything that was base.”
The Lion of Chaeronea
At the entrance to the present-day village of Chaeronea, about 13 km from the town of Livadeia, you can see a huge statue of a lion placed on a marble base. When Philip, after obtaining the victory, allowed the burial of the dead, the Thebans raised the lion, as a funerary monument to remember the heroism and the place where the fighters of the Sacred Band were buried. Archaeological excavations have brought to light the skeletons of 254 men and part of their equipment. The number of skeletons is close to the total number of soldiers who made up the battalion, 300, which can only be further proof that this monument was dedicated to them. The lion is 5.50 meters tall and stands on its hind legs, facing the tumulus of the fallen Macedonians, situated at about 3 kilometers away.
The lion was assembled from five pieces of marble. Due to the passage of time and to the weathering, the base was destroyed and the lion, already broken in pieces, was mostly covered with earth. When the Ottoman Empire still ruled over those lands, the Sultan asked to the lion to be brought to Constantinople (today Istanbul) but this was not done due to the difficulties of transporting it. Lord Byron, the renowned English poet, found it in pieces and partly buried when he visited Ioannina in 1809. His fellow countryman, Crawford, discovered the head and a few pieces during an improvised excavation in 188, but covered them again. In 1834, after the liberation of Greece, the rehabilitation of the monument was discussed, but the project did not advance due to the lack of the necessary funds. In 1879 archaeological excavations were made, which led to the discovery of the skeletons of the fighters, who had been buried in seven rows in the area surrounding the monument. Efforts had been apparently made to have them buried in the exact position in which they had fought and died. In 1902 the restoration of the monument was initiated by the renowned Greek sculptors from Tinos, Lazaros Fytalis and Lazaros Sochos. The lion was reassembled from the found pieces and the missing parts were completed with stones brought from the neighboring town, Livadeia. The base was completely rebuilt, with a height of 3 meters. Funds for the restoration were provided by the Archaeological Society. Or so they say… but maybe things didn’t happen exactly like that…
The Order of Chaeronea
History books, articles and official documents meticulously try to hide a huge “secret”. The main restoration financier of the monument of the Lion of Chaeronea was a very little known British secret society of the Victorian era, which by its nature and by what it defended and represented determined the moralists and prudish of the time as well as the contemporary ones, to hide their valuable contribution during the restoration of the ancient monument.
The society was founded in 1897 under the name “Order of Chaeronea” by George Cecil Ives. He was a writer, poet, criminal justice reformer, and gay rights activist. Convinced that homosexuals would not be openly accepted by society, he created the Order of Chaeronea to support the “Cause” and to create a network of help and socialization for members. And this at a time when same-sex relationships were punishable by heavy prison sentences.
Although there is no list of the initiated members of this order, it is assumed that their number did not exceed 300, the number of fighters of the sacred battalion, mostly men, however, it did include a few women. Some of the possible initiated members were the famous Oscar Wilde, his lover, the poet Lord Alfred Douglas “Bosie”, the Anglican poet and priest Samuel Elsworth Cottam, the poet, teacher and amateur photographer John Gambril Nicholson and Montague Summers, a writer, teacher, cleric and occultist.
The name of the order was obviously inspired by the battle where the couples which formed the Sacred Band were exterminated, the insignia of the order was the Lion of Chaeronea and the year zero of the Order was considered the year of the battle, 338 B.C.
Upon initiation into the Order, an oath was taken which speculated, among other things, that “you will never vex or persecute lovers” and “That all real love shall be to you as sanctuary”.
Initiates used codes, passwords and symbols and met in rituals that followed specific ceremonies with specific goals and philosophies. In order to fulfil the initiation conditions, each candidate had to show zeal, desire to learn and discipline. Like any other initiatory order, its members were forbidden to reveal any information about the order or its other members. All members were considered equal and called themselves “Brothers of the Faith” and the purpose was not to be used as an opportunity for meetings for sexual purposes but for the international promotion of the Cause and the cultivation of a moral, ethical, cultural and spiritual homosexual ethos, that will lead to the undermining of rigid class society and the establishment of true democracy.
In 2023, an extremely rare artefact was discovered in a small village in Norfolk. A signet ring of the Order which contained, among other symbols, the secret password “AMRRHAO”, the year of the battle of Chaeronea, 338, and the initials of the elementary words for membership of the order “Zeal, Learning, Discipline”.
Considering that international information sources about this order and about its contribution to the financing of the restoration of the monument of the Lion of Chaeronea, one of the most important and ancient monuments on the territory of Greece, are extremely limited, and the ones from Greece, the country which directly benefited from this restoration, are non-existent, it seems that Ives was right after all. Society failed to accept them then and apparently fails to accept them even now.
