In 1880, in the village of Chaironeia in central Greece, Greek archaeologists made a remarkable find: a largely undisturbed mass grave of 254 ancient soldiers, some of whom are buried arm in arm.

The men in this grave were clearly a special group, and it has generally been assumed that they were the dead of the Theban Sacred Band (hieros lochos) – an elite fighting unit made up of 150 pairs of male lovers, fighting side by side.

The Sacred Band had been set up in about 378 BCE, after the people of Thebes (in central Greece, north of Athens) had freed themselves from a brief period of rule by the regional superpower of that era, the Spartans.

This elite unit was a professional force of 300 heavily armed infantrymen who fought in Thebes’ wars, in central Greece, north into Thessaly, and south into the Peloponnese, used either as shock troops or as a bulwark of defence.

An army ‘composed of lovers and their beloveds’

As always in Greek history, the evidence is problematic.

Much of it comes from Greek-Roman philosopher Plutarch, writing 500 years later but using earlier sources now lost to us.

And even Plutarch is cautious. In his text Life of Pelopidas 18.1–2, he relies on vague language, writing:

Some say that this band was composed of lovers and beloved […] since the lovers are ashamed to play the coward before their beloved, and the beloved before their lovers, and both stand firm in danger to protect each other.

Some say that this band was composed of lovers and beloved […] since the lovers are ashamed to play the coward before their beloved, and the beloved before their lovers, and both stand firm in danger to protect each other.

The philosopher........

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