Battle of Haliartus in 395 BC

The ancient city of Haliartoe lay on a snail rise, nestled between the heights of mount Helikon to the south and west, and the swampy expanse of the Copaic basin to the north and east, the battle of Haliartus, fought in 395 B.C., is nestled between the stable age of Athenian empire and a period of political chaos in Greece ended by the domination of the Philip IX and the Macedonians.

Phocians appeal to Sparta for help in dispute with Thebes and Locris; Lysander plans double invasion of Boeotia with himself attacking from the north through Phocis and Pausanias reaching Haliartus in western Boeotia from the south. Pausanias was a grandson of Pausanias, Agiad king of Sparta 445–426 and 408–395 BC.

Athens responds to Theban request for help. Lysander fails to wait for Pausanias and planned double attack on Haliartus fails.

The battle of Haliartus (395 BC) was the first significant fighting during the Corinthian War (395-386 BC) and was a Spartan defeat that saw the death of Lysander, their victorious leader from of the Great Peloponnesian War.

Pausanias makes a truce, he retires to Arcadian Tegea in voluntary exile. Rhodians take control of government from oligarchs and establish a democracy hostile to Sparta.
Battle of Haliartus in 395 BC

Theban's Sacred Band of Thebes

Sacred Band of Thebes, a battalion composed of 150 pairs of male lovers, maintained at state expense, who were station on the battlefield in couples, thus establishing a noble precedent for homosexual in the military.

This force created by Theban general Gorgidas in 378 BC. It was probably first formed as a guard for the city-state’s citadel. At first the Sacred Band did not distinguish itself in combat; possibly because Gorgidas placed it soldiers in the front ranks of the central Theban phalanx, where it was integrated with other soldiers.

 

This did not allow the special training of the Band to be demonstrated because other less talented soldiers diluted the Band’s strength.

Established after the liberation of Thebes from the Spartans, this battalion contributed to Thebes’ military prestige until its heroic end at Chaeronea in 338 BC. Apparently Gorgidas was killed in some skirmish shortly after he founded the band, for the next year its leadership passed to Pelopidas, the young Theban, who had led the exiles in there rebellion.

The scared Band achieved its reputation by defeating the premiere army of ancient Greece, the Spartans, but they could not match the new organization and tactics introduced by Philip, whose army, under his son Alexander, would conquer most of the known world.
Theban's Sacred Band of Thebes