Nixon: "you know what happened to the Greeks.."

Nixon: “you know what happened to the Greeks..”

They were eventually defeated by a gay Macedonian.

From the wiki:

The Sacred Band of Thebes (Ancient Greek: Ἱερὸς Λόχος, Hieròs Lókhos) was a troop of select soldiers, consisting of 150 pairs of male lovers which formed the elite force of the Theban army in the 4th century BC. Its predominance began with its crucial role in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC. It was annihilated by Philip II of Macedon in the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC.

According to Plutarch, the 300 hand-picked men were chosen by Gorgidas purely for ability and merit, regardless of social class. It was composed of 150 male couples, each pair consisting of an older erastês (ἐραστής, “lover”) and a younger erômenos (ἐρώμενος, “beloved”). Athenaeus of Naucratis also records the Sacred Band as being composed of “lovers and their favorites, thus indicating the dignity of the god Eros in that they embrace a glorious death in preference to a dishonorable and reprehensible life”; while Polyaenus describes the Sacred Band as being composed of men “devoted to each other by mutual obligations of love”. Their regular training included wrestling and dance.

Battle of Leuctra

The Battle of Leuctra (Greek: Λεῦκτρα, Leûktra) was a battle fought on 6 July 371 BC between the Boeotians led by Thebans and the Spartans along with their allies amidst the post-Corinthian War conflict. The battle took place in the neighbourhood of Leuctra, a village in Boeotia in the territory of Thespiae. The Theban left hit the Spartan right with the Sacred Band of Thebes, led by Pelopidas. The Spartan right was hurled back with a loss of about 1,000 men, of whom 400 were some of Sparta’s most experienced soldiers. Seeing their right wing beaten, the rest of the Peloponnesians, who were essentially unwilling participants, retired and left the enemy in possession of the field. The Theban victory shattered Sparta’s immense influence over the Greek peninsula, which Sparta had gained since its victory in the Peloponnesian War.

Battle of Chaeron

Defeat came at the Battle of Chaeron (338 BC), the decisive contest in which Philip II of Macedon, with his son Alexander, extinguished Theban hegemony. The battle is the culmination of Philip’s campaign into central Greece in preparation for a war against Persia. It was fought between the Macedonians and their allies and an alliance of Greek city-states led by Athens and Thebes.

The Thebans of the Sacred Band held their ground and Plutarch records that all 300 fell where they stood beside their last commander, Theagenes. Their defeat at the battle was a significant victory for Philip, since until then, the Sacred Band was regarded as invincible throughout all of Ancient Greece. Plutarch records that Philip II, on encountering the corpses “heaped one upon another”, understanding who they were, wept and exclaimed, “Perish any man who suspects that these men either did or suffered anything unseemly.”