While the story of the Sacred Band of Thebes is well known and the Band itself is mentioned in almost every history of Greece, there exists no complete chronological account of its formation, activities, and eventual destruction. Using the ancient sources, some of which refer only obliquely to the Sacred Band, the author attempts to present a linear history of this elite military unit (includes chapters on the Spartans, Greek warfare, the Delphic Oracle, and features an earthquake, a tidal wave, Halley's Comet, war, ...
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While the story of the Sacred Band of Thebes is well known and the Band itself is mentioned in almost every history of Greece, there exists no complete chronological account of its formation, activities, and eventual destruction. Using the ancient sources, some of which refer only obliquely to the Sacred Band, the author attempts to present a linear history of this elite military unit (includes chapters on the Spartans, Greek warfare, the Delphic Oracle, and features an earthquake, a tidal wave, Halley's Comet, war, politics, religion, sex, violence, maps, illustrations, a massive pile of endnotes, a huge bibliography, a time-line, glossary, lists of personal and place names, etc.).
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This easily qualifies as the worst book about ancient Greece I've ever read. The author seems to be in way over his head at pretty much every juncture. He simply doesn't appear to be qualified to write about the subject matter in question with any depth or accuracy. Furthermore, too much of the book is not about the so-called Sacred Band of Thebes at all, so the title is somewhat misleading. The work is a veritable alphabet soup of ideas, lacking academic scholarship one could take seriously, and the author's style of writing can easily be surpassed by your average college freshman. To illustrate my point, here's a fair sample of the author's mesmerizing syntax:
"... there's a lot of military stuff, and some stuff about Greek sexuality (and other stuff)."
"They were the most feared soldiers in Hellas because they were the best soldiers in Hellas, and they were the best soldiers because they were the only ones who actually trained at being soldiers."
"The Spartans thought it would be a good opportunity to take the Thebans down a peg, and besides that, they were still upset about the Thebans' treatment of Agesilaos at Aulis, so the ephors sent Lysander, who after his falling out with Agesilaos was now back in Sparta, to Phokis to rouse the various peoples there, while Pausanias, the other king, gathered their Peloponnesian allies and marched north."
"As soon as he left, the Argives held their own games and, as Xenophon says, some competitors won twice and some lost twice, and, one would suppose, though Xenophon doesn't say so, some won and lost."
Riveting, eh? I guess the best way to endure it is to call: Waiter! A stiff drink as fast as possible. Then another, to keep the first one company. And another...
