Bard Professors James Romm and Daniel Mendelsohn on Ancient Greece’s Army of Lovers

Image courtesy Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, Directorate of the Management of the National Archive of Monuments, Department of the Historical Archive of Antiquities and Restorations
Comprising 150 male couples, Thebes’s Sacred Band was undefeated until it was wiped out in 338 B.C. The warriors’ valor, the Greeks believed, was due to the fact that no man would ever exhibit cowardice in front of his beloved. In the 19th century, their mass grave was found. Charles Ranlett Flint Professor of Humanities Daniel Mendelsohn pens this article in the New Yorker ahead of the publication of a new book by James H. Ottaway Jr. Professor of Classics James Romm, The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom (Simon and Schuster, June 2021). Read the Article
 
Bard faculty member and Princeton alum James Romm speaks with the Princeton Alumni Weekly about the new book and his work to bring the heroism of Ancient Thebes to light. Read the Interview
 

Post Date: 04-20-2021