The Elite Special Forces of Ancient Greece

Two soldiers fight; creation connected a ceramic vase from Athens Museum. Credit: Athens Museum / CC BY 2.0

The peculiar forces of Ancient Greece, from the Band of Thebes to the Hetairoi of the service of Alexander the Great, went down successful past arsenic immoderate of the top elite service groups of each time.

Thanks to Homer’s Iliad, the Myrmidons of Achilles are the astir wide known service of large Greek warriors. Yet the Myrmidons beryllium to the ethereal realm of Greek mythology.

However, elite forces were existent successful Ancient Greece, and were known to the force arsenic immoderate of the astir unsafe and lethal powers. Many of their brave deeds were documented successful the humanities record.

The peculiar forces of Ancient Greece

The Sciritae who fought alongside Spartans

According to Greek historiographer Diodorus Siculus, during the epic Battle of Thermopylae (480 BC), a tiny set of men broke into the force campy and reached the structure of the Persian King, Xerxes.

Xerxes was not successful the royal structure himself, but his 2 brothers, generals Avrokomis and Yperanthis, were sleeping inside. The Greek soldiers killed them both.

After the large feat of assassinating the 2 generals, each the Greek soldiers carrying retired this “Mission Impossible” were tragically slaughtered by the Immortals, the Persian royal guard.

The men who dealt that terrible stroke to the invading Persian service were not Spartan warriors. They were Sciritae, a mountainous radical of Laconia who were taxable to Sparta. It was a peculiar unit that played a pivotal relation successful a fig of battles.

Originally called the Band of Sciritae, they were considered elite soldiers. Their awesome a achromatic hawk connected a achromatic background, the set consisted of men selected for their carnal strength, endurance and conflict skills.

The Greek historiographer Thucydides wrote that successful conflict the Sciritae held the near broadside of the formation, adjacent to the king, portion the close was held by the Spartans.

According to historians, erstwhile the Spartan Phalanx came to prosecute with the enemy, the Sciritae were the lone portion moving successful beforehand of the king. They acted arsenic a vanguard and were sometimes adjacent further up of the cavalry.

At nighttime they took afloat defender responsibility, scouting the crushed and camps successful places wherever they could spot enemies and their movements from afar.

The Sacred Band of Thebes

The Sacred Band of Thebes was formed successful 378 BC by the Theban wide Gorgidas. This legendary peculiar unit was made up exclusively of 150 pairs of adjacent friends oregon lovers.

Only the finest warriors from the city-state were invited to articulation this elite band. Hand-picked for their prowess, physique, and warring skills, recruits received arduous carnal grooming successful wrestling, horsemanship, and adjacent dancing, that was designed to foster an elite and highly bonded unit.

The thought was to make a singular assemblage of men that would combat arsenic a azygous battlefield unit.

The reasoning was that erstwhile agreed by relationship and love, the soldiers would combat overmuch harder successful conflict to support 1 another, whereas idiosyncratic soldiers, without specified ties, could much easy wantonness their chap soldiers if things became desperate.

Other than warring arsenic a robust unit, the Sacred Band were often deployed successful the beforehand ranks of regular phalanxes to assistance the morale of mean soldiers.

The Sacred Band was established astatine a clip erstwhile the city-state of Sparta was precise almighty and had invaded Central Greece.

The Sacred Band fought admirably successful the Boeotian War against the invading Spartan forces and bushed them successful respective battles successful the mid-4th period BC.

It was lone the mighty Macedonia service that yet wiped retired the Sacred Band astatine the Battle of Chaeronea successful 338 BC.

The Macedonian Hetairoi

The mighty service of Alexander the Great is wide known for forging 1 of the past world’s astir awesome empires, reaching each the mode to India.

What is not wide known is that an important portion of that service was the Companion Cavalry oregon Hetairoi, an unbeatable peculiar force.

The Companion Cavalry, the biggest peculiar unit of Ancient Greece, consisted of 2,600 men, to whom Alexander had provided the champion weaponry, armor and horses.

The Macedonian peculiar unit was important successful beating the Thebans astatine Chaeronea, portion of a legendary service that went connected to alteration the full past world.

The Hetairoi was a assemblage of elite horsemen, each noblemen who fought closest to the king — hence the name. They fulfilled the relation of some royal household defender and elite mounted shock-troops of the Macedonian army.

The Companion Cavalry were the elite of each the cavalry units wrong the service and were led by Alexander himself. They were traditionally deployed connected the close of the conflict enactment and often astatine the constituent of maximum violative impact.

The Hetairoi galloped into conflict successful virtually unstoppable wedge formations. Their legendary shock-and-awe benignant assaults seemed to travel retired of nowhere.

They typically targeted the undefended rear echelons of force phalanxes. Such attacks often scattered full Persian armies.