"Chaeronea: Revisited and Revised" Topic

CHAERONEA:
REVISITED & REVISED

Frustrated by numerous attempts to draft a coherent, engaging, and interesting narrative about a recently completed solo wargame wherein a large army led by Hannibal Barca faced off against an equally large army commanded by Pyrrhus of Epirus, I decided to take a day or two off and then return "once more unto the breach," if the appreciated reader will permit me to use a phrase from Shakespeare's Henry V. [1] Instead of returning to the disconcertingly vexing analysis and exploration of that—appealing as it was—particular counterfactual, I embarked upon another.

In August, I read James Romm's excellent new book, THE SACRED BAND – Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom. (For those readers who may be curious about the text, please see link Professor Romm notes that while the Sacred Band fought on the left of the line of battle at Leuctra (371 BC) and at Mantinea (the second one, fought in 362 BC), it was deployed on the right of the line at Chaeronea (338 BC). The elite corps of 300 men, made up of 150 pairs of lovers, was destroyed by the Macedonian father and son team of Philip and Alexander.

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