The Polyandrion of the Theban Sacred Band

The way in which the warriors of the Sacred Band of Thebes were found buried demonstrates their deployment on the battlefield.

The presence of fatal wounds in the anthropological material of the members of the Sacred Band testifies that these men met a violent death from the innovative weapons of the Macedonian army, led by King Philip II.

The intact skeleton in the centre of the room is the warrior of the Sacred Band in row ΣΤ΄ no. 12, as he appears in the diary of Panagiotis Stamatakis (1880) in the section of the present exhibition entitled “The Battle”.

The dead of the Polyandrion are buried stripped of their weapons, which must have been looted by the Macedonian army. The grave goods that accompany them are also extremely poor. Just 17 clay vases, all humble products of a local workshop, probably used in the camp, numerous buttons, and 92+ iron strigils. The last find is very important, as it is an extremely common find in male burials, but it has a great symbolic significance: it is the object par excellence that links a man to his participation in the gymnasium and makes him a citizen. The men buried in the Polyandrion at Chaeronea died as warriors but were buried as civilians. The strigils that accompany them are harmless to the victor but do place the dead in the world of the city (πολῖται) for which they gave their lives as hoplites (ὁπλῖται). The victors of the Battle of Chaeronea “write” the narrative of the Polyandrion of the Theban Sacred Band with this anagram (ὁπλῖται – πολῖται).