Sacred Wars and Thebes' Strategic Strain

“Take me back to the quarries.” Philoxenus

“Pelopidas died as he’d lived, a freedom fighter who rushed fearlessly into the fray.” James Romm

“As one approaches Chaeronea, there is a tomb of the Thebans who died in the battle with Philip. No inscription adorns it, but a monument stands over it in the form of a lion, the best emblem of the spirit of those men. It seems to me the inscription is lacking because their fortunes were not equal to their courage.” Pausanias

In this second and final episode in this series, we see the age of Thebes’ Sacred Band coming to an end, as a new power rises in Macedon. As we tackle this fundamentally important period in Greek history, we’ll run into Dionysius of Syracuse and his horrendous poetry, the rise of Philip of Macedonia and Alexander (soon to be ‘The Great’), the badass sayings of Pelopidas and his heroic death, the rise of wealthy dictators and their bloody ends, the Sacred Wars, the career of Phyrne—the greatest hetaera of the age, and the end of Thebes.  

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