Battalion Of Gay Lovers Was A Fierce Fighting Unit

THE continuing efforts to bar gays from the military are met with mixed emotions. Many don't mind being denied membership in an organization primarily designed to kill people. However, since the end of the draft in the 1970s, the military has used educational and training benefits as inducements to enlist.

Those benefits are paid for with our tax dollars, yet we are denied access to them based on our sexuality.

The military's proposition that "homosexuality is incompatible with military service" is preposterous, and the policy cannot stand.

One thing gays must not overlook when developing arguments against the policy is our history. Homosexuality has been a central organizing principle for some of the best military units.

Those who search the many pages of gay history for evidence of this need look no farther than the proud, majestic Lion of Chaeronea. The statue was erected over 2,200 years ago to commemorate one of the most respected fighting battalions ever formed, the Sacred Band of Thebes.

The Sacred Band was comprised of 300 men. They were not ordinary men. They were homosexual lovers. The band was organized on the principle that a man would fight more courageously and never flee from battle if his lover were by his side.

Living in an era when homosexual love between men was accepted, even encouraged, members of the band received the best formal education and military training.

The Roman historian Plutarch, in his "Lives of Noble Grecians and Romans," wrote that the band was called "sacred" because the members' love for each other was inspired by the gods.

Formed in 378 B.C. by the military leader Gorgidas, the Sacred Band had a proud history in ancient Greece. During a period known as the Theban Hegemony (371-362 B.C.), the Sacred Band was the chief defensive unit of the Greek city-state of Thebes. For a short while, Thebes rivaled the power of Athens and Sparta, and the Sacred Band was responsible for much of Thebes' military success.

Previously, fighting units had consisted of members of the same tribe or clan. The Theban general Pammenes is said to have commented that, "Tribesmen or clansmen do not feel any great concern for their kinsfolk in time of danger, but a band which is united by the ties of love is truly indissoluble and unbreakable, since both lovers and beloved are ashamed to be disgraced in the presence of the other and each stands his ground at a moment of danger to protect the other."

Gorgidas and another Theban leader, Pelopidas, originally spread the members of the band throughout their forces. Members of the band first fought as a single unit at the Battle of Tegyra in a great Theban victory over Sparta.

According to Plutarch, the band "distinguished itself brilliantly," and Pelopidas ordered that the band never be divided in future battles. From then on, Pelopidas used the band in "the place of danger" in his greatest battles and often fought by their side.

The Sacred Band was undefeated in combat for more than 40 years until a fateful day in August or September 338 B.C. near the village of Chaeronea, northwest of Athens. There, a coalition force of Greek city-states gathered to face the army of Philip II of Macedonia and his 18-year-old son Alexander, who would soon become Alexander the Great. The battle proved to be one of the most decisive in Greek history, perhaps second only to Marathon. Reports of the battle tell of very long and fierce combat with tactical retreats and much bloody hand-to-hand fighting.

Ultimately, the Macedonian forces stormed into the city and slaughtered many inhabitants. Some historians record that virtually all members of the Sacred Band were killed in the battle. Others say all.

Plutarch says that after the battle, Philip surveyed the carnage: "He stood at the place where the 300 had faced the long pikes of his phalanx, and lay dead in their armor, their bodies piled upon the other. He was amazed at the sight, and when he learned that this was the band of lovers and beloved, he wept and exclaimed, `A curse on those who imagine that these men ever did or suffered anything shameful!"' It is said that not a single member of the band died from a wound in the back.

Today, where the Sacred Band of Thebes suffered its first and only defeat, stands a fitting monument to their valor. The Lion of Chaeronea silently guards 264 individual graves that many historians believe to be those of the Sacred Band. Legend has it that the lion was built by order of Alexander the Great himself.

At Chaeronea, the ground is hallowed by the blood of those who fought against tyranny and for the principle that an army of lovers could not be defeated. History can offer us no better compatriots in our struggle for justice and equality today.

Robert Udick is a doctoral candidate in the social science program at the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University; he wrote this article for the Post-Standard of Syracuse, N.Y.