Sacred band
Encyclopedia
The term Sacred Band, also Sacred Company or Sacred Squadron (from ) can refer to one of the following military units:
In the ancient world:
In modern Greek history, the name has been used to denote several military units:
In fiction:
In the ancient world:
- Sacred Band of ThebesSacred Band of ThebesThe Sacred Band of Thebes was a troop of picked soldiers, consisting of 150 male couples which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC. It was organised by the Theban commander Gorgidas in 378 BC and played a crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra...
- Sacred Band of CarthageSacred Band of CarthageThe Sacred Band of Carthage is the name used by Greek historians to refer to an infantry unit of Carthaginian foot citizens that served in Carthaginian armies during the fourth century BC...
In modern Greek history, the name has been used to denote several military units:
- Sacred Band (1821)Sacred Band (1821)The Sacred Band was a battalion founded by Alexander Ypsilantis at the beginning of the Greek War of Independence, in February 1821 in Wallachia, now part of Romania.-Origin and structure:...
of the Greek War of Independence - Cretan Sacred Band during the Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869Cretan Revolt (1866–1869)The Cretan Revolt of 1866–1869 or Great Cretan Revolution was a three year uprising against Ottoman rule, the third and largest in a series of Cretan revolts between the end of the Greek War of Independence in 1830 and the establishment of the independent Cretan State in 1898.-Background:The...
- Cretan Student's Sacred Band, which participated in the Balkan WarsBalkan WarsThe Balkan Wars were two conflicts that took place in the Balkans in south-eastern Europe in 1912 and 1913.By the early 20th century, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Greece and Serbia, the countries of the Balkan League, had achieved their independence from the Ottoman Empire, but large parts of their ethnic...
as a part of the Hellenic Army - Epirote Sacred Band (1914), formed during the establishment of the Autonomous Republic of Northern EpirusAutonomous Republic of Northern EpirusThe Autonomous Republic of Northern Epirus was a short-lived, self-governing entity founded on February 28, 1914, in the aftermath of the Balkan Wars, by the Greeks living in southern Albania ....
. - Sacred Band (World War II)Sacred Band (World War II)The Sacred band was a Greek special forces unit formed in 1942 in the Middle East, composed entirely of Greek officers and officer cadets under the command of Col. Christodoulos Tsigantes. It fought alongside the SAS in the Libyan desert and the Aegean, as well as with General Leclerc's Free...
, a special forces unit composed entirely of officers
In fiction:
- the Sacred Band of StepsonsThe Sacred Band of StepsonsThe Sacred Band of Stepsons is a fictional ancient cavalry unit created by Janet Morris and based on the historical Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite strike force of paired lovers and friends that flourished during the fourth century BCE in ancient Greece, where sexuality was a behavior, not an...
is a mythical Sacred Band of ancient cavalry fighters that eventually unites with the survivors of the Sacred Band of Thebes in a seven-novel saga