'Perish miserably they who think that these men did or suffered aught disgraceful.'

The words Philip II of Macedon, as ascribed to by Plutarch, when Alexander the Great's father, surveyed the three hundred dead of the Sacred Band of Thebes on the battlefield at Chaeronea it is said that he wept. This Golden Band, as it was also called, was the legendary army of lovers who fought alongside their beloved, ultimately to their death. It would provide the model, knowingly or unwittingly, for other warriors around the world and blows apart the lie that active homosexuals in the armed forces are anathema to the military mind.

A contributing factor to Philip's victory at Chaeronea was his three years spent in captivity by the Thebans so he would have witnessed the Sacred Band up close and learnt a great deal about the enemy. It would not necessarily have been this 'army of lovers' togetherness that would have alarmed him, as Philip was a highborn Greek and bisexuality was the norm, but their effectiveness as a unit.

Indeed, when Philip went on the warpath, pleasure was not dismissed. He and his friends would enjoy the company of eight hundred young eunuchs. If Philip had not been assassinated by a teenage page called Pausanias, after having buggered the boy in full view of the guests at a banquet, we may not have had Alexander, as the conqueror of the then known world, but Philip the Great. Pausanias was described as a 'psychopathic homosexual courtier' in The Classical Greeks by Michael Grant, which sounds a little unfair in the circumstances, if they were true. Olympias, Philip's wife and Alexander's mother, may have had a hand in the affair and if so that could imply that Alexander agreed to the deed, although not taking part in his father's assassination. Either way, for the time that Philip was alive he was building an army that would later rule the world, or what was then known of it.

Excess such as Philip's was hardly out of the ordinary, compared to the behaviour of the Romans such as Nero, Claudius and, even, Trajan, but even at the time of the Ancient Greeks it was far from unusual. Chares, an Athenian general, makes the likes of General MacArthur look positively mean in comparison to living in luxury whilst on campaign - flute-girls, harp-girls, and prostitutes accompanied this particular Greek commander, and he assigned enough money from his war chest to maintaining these comforts. He even managed to send some back home, so not only he was a party lover he was prudent with it. So Philip was hardly breaking new ground in the realms of pleasure, but his ruthlessness and ambition, both politically and militarily, did.

Assuming charge of the Macedonian government as regent for his nephew Amyntas, whom he later set aside, Philip took what he had learnt from his time as a hostage and overhauled the army as any good dictator. His first few years of his reign saw his successful dispatch of any rivals and organising the military on the basis of the phalanx.

For centuries, the phalanx had been the mainstay of warfare in Ancient Greece. They formed the elite, drawn as they were from male citizens of the various city-states who had voting rights. They had to be well off, as the equipment was expensive, including a bronze helmet, armour and greaves. These heavily drilled soldiers, or hoplites, marched towards the opposing force in a close-packed phalanx, fighting in line, where the unit mattered and not the individual. In set-piece engagements they were the obvious contenders for victory. On their home turf they were normally a match for the Persians, although they could be found wanting in foreign climes. The Persians made mincemeat of Greek colonies in Asia Minor.

With the defeat of the combined Athenian and Theban forces at Chaeronea, Philip brought the notion of total war to Ancient Greece. Cavalry had been present on the battlefield before, as had light troops as javelin throwers and such, the Macedonians, who hailed from the north where horses were more plentiful and less expensive than in Sparta or Athens. Wealthy citizens in the southern city-states would provide horses but not participate as cavalry themselves. Alexander and the Macedonians in general were expert horsemen. The prince had operated on the left flank of his father's army at Chaeronea. He was still only eighteen.

Philip's untimely demise cut short his plans to conquer Persia but Alexander III of Macedon, as he was known at the time of his father's death, pick up the gauntlet thrown by his parent and began the invasion of Asia, defeating Darius III. He would take his army through Syria, Egypt, Susa and Persepolis, and further. However, if it had not been for Philip's vision, not to say downright ruthlessness, the groundwork for such conquest may never have materialised.

Whereas the Macedonians had clearly intended to extend their territory, the city-states had never really been that bothered about invasion. War in Ancient Greece was more to do with settling old scores and defeating rivals. Sparta, which was, essentially, a fascist military state ruled over by two kings, disliked its neighbour Athens, with its philosophers, poets and notions of democracy. So frugal was their use of language their ancient capital Laconia has given us the word laconic.

The Spartans were the acknowledged experts at the use of the phalanx. Also known as Lacedaemon, it was situated in the southeast corner of the Peloponnesus. They were victors in the Peloponnesian war against the Athenians, whom they were so opposed to, being such an aristocratic, conservative and militaristic society. Their use of slaves to do all the laborious tasks was not limited, as it was common to use others to do such drudgery, but their paranoia was. The Spartan army regularly did their manoeuvres at night in order that the slaves would be unable to gauge the military strength of their owners.

As they did not have the distractions of Athens, war, and the preparations for it, was all consuming, which can be evidenced from the annual Gymnopaedia, or naked boys' dance, held to honour those Spartans who had fallen at Thyrce, a sort of war memorial. As its name suggests there were gymnastic performances and dances. Being naked was nothing shameful in the eyes of the Greeks and the wearing of a loincloth or shorts would have been considered ludicrous. This festival was treated with great veneration and given preference over everything else.

Even amongst the opposition, they had their admirers, most notably Xenophon, a pupil of Socrates, who took the young man under his wing, picking him up off the street! His great love for Sparta eventually led him to being exiled from his native Athens after fighting against them in 394 BC, spending the rest of his life in either Sparta or Corinth.

Xenophon would not be their only admirer. Friedrich Nietzsche the German philosopher, who declared God's death, eventually ended his days in a lunatic asylum. Nietzche's theory on superman influenced the Nazis, including Hitler. Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, whom the Hitler Youth were based on, also admired the Spartans.

Baden-Powell was so enamoured of the Spartans that Boy Scouts were even taught the story of the young boy who stole a fox and hid it under his tunic permitting it gnaw at his vitals rather than confess his theft. Along with other Field-Marshal Montgomery and Kitchener, Baden-Powell has been sprung from history's closet as one of a number of famous Victorian men who married late in life but whose latent attraction to beautiful young boys has led to a reassessment of what exactly made them tick.

The story of the boy who stole the fox displays a characteristic unique to the Dorian Sparta of Classical times. They took pride in courage, endurance, frugality and discipline, attributes that would later be the basis of the single-sex English public boarding school whose prime purpose during the Victorian age was to churn out future diplomats, archbishops and other worthy sons to run the burgeoning British Empire. The so-called stiff upper lip did not arise from the playing fields of Eton and Harrow, or so it seems, but on the plains of Ancient Greece.

The level of what could almost be called institutionalised homosexuality amongst the Spartans may be gathered from their marriage customs. As with most Greeks the basic pattern was marriage by capture. One popular method was for the groom to secretly elope with his bride. Unusually this was not an atypical show of force but symbolic of a re-enactment of a previous engagement. It was meant to be symbolic, although there was one odd touch. The bride-to-be was dressed in male attire with even her hair was cut short. Once married the couple would not live together for another twelve years, as her husband continued to live with his unit. Why a man's future wife had to dress up as a man remains open to conjecture, but it demonstrates how much same-sex relationships were accepted within Greek society.

Sparta may have been no fun for its women, who were allowed to own land but were essentially the property of men, and certainly not for the slaves who allowed the elite their leisure time, but life was no bowl of cherries for the young boys. Taken from their mothers at an early age they lived in barracks until they were thirty. If they had been born with a deformity they would have been allowed to die, been exposed to the elements. Brutal, but necessary, every available free man had to be prepared to protect Sparta, whether it was Athens or Persia.

Another Spartan legend recalls a mother's exhortation to her son as he leaves for battle that he should either return carrying his shield or on it. Which not only highlights the expectations of a young hoplite, but also the importance of the shield, as it was nearly as, if not more, important than his spear. Within the phalanx, a shield not only protected the soldier bearing it but also that of the comrade to his left.

As with all things, their dominance on the battlefield had to come to an end and it did so under the aegis of one of Ancient Greece's greatest military geniuses, Epaminondas. A man revered not only for his moral character but also for the fact that he rose from an impoverished family because of his steadfastness, ability and goodness. Unusually, he never married and left no heir. When he fell in battle, he was buried, by order, with his two favourites, Asopichus and Leuctra, in the same tomb.

The Sacred Band of Thebes, whose conception was that of Epaminondas, also referred to as the Golden Band, has accrued an almost mythical status becoming the legendary army of lovers that has captured the imagination of gay liberationists ever since. Formed by Gorgidas, these crack troops were believed to have been one hundred and fifty pairs of lovers, hence the appellation 'army of lovers' which has been carried down the ages to our present time. It is alleged that they were never beaten until that fatal day when they came up against the might of the Macedonian phalangites, or pikemen, superior even to the traditional phalanx.

This was unique, even amongst the Greeks, to have such a force, despite the fact that sexual relationships between men and teenage boys were tolerated, accepted and, in some ways, encouraged, they were not meant to be a permanent fixture. It was simply a part of growing up. Men were expected to marry, chiefly for the purposes of leaving a legitimate heir then continue to have sex either with a mistress, boys as mentioned, or prostitutes. It was Ancient Greece that had the first officially sanctioned brothels in history, although prostitution had its roots in the temples of Ancient Babylon. It was Solon who started on the slippery slope to commercialising the sex trade that we still see today from Soho to Bangkok.

It is this forthright attitude towards sexuality and especially that between consenting males that was such an embarrassment to Victorian translators such as Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol. Many other admirers of the Ancient Greeks have been disturbed by what to them would seem indecent, if not illegal, behaviour. Of course, others have not been so reticent including Oscar Wilde, the Bloomsbury set and, later on, they have been used in mitigation on behalf of those who would wish for a more tolerant attitude towards those who engage in same-sex relationships in the twentieth century.

It is all too easy, as right-wing politicians and moral campaigners have done in our own time, to present the notion of a golden age when everything was hunky-dory in Eden, or Paradise. Until, that is, temptation, whether it be in the guise of Eve or a serpent, to portray Ancient Greece as a place where gay love was without fear or loathing.

It is clear from the literature from contemporary literature and art, especially pottery, that men were allowed to have sex with boys as soon as they entered puberty, but certainly not before. It was considered bad form for the boy to actually show any enjoyment and anal penetration of either party was officially forbidden. Orgasm was limited to the man ejaculating between the boy's thighs. Men were expected to chase these beautiful youths that would feign indifference, much as with a man's attempts to seduce a woman. It was cultural, rather than legal, impositions that kept everyone on the straight and narrow. According to Burgo Patridge in his seminal work, A History of Orgies, orgies of rape by a conquering army on defeated civilians were rare. The nomadic Scythians, precursors of the Huns and the Mongols, who lived on the boundaries of Greece to the north, whose disdain for civilisation left them with less regard for human life was the mirror opposite of the Greeks.

Of course, in reality things must have been different. The comedies of Aristophanes portray how these practices were often infringed. The contradiction that the passive partner, or bottom in the modern parlance of our times, would be the one who would carry the scorn of his fellows, yet it did not make them unpopular. In our own times, the English public school has earned a somewhat warranted reputation for same-sex behaviour amongst its pupils and sometimes between pupil and master. Even today, in the countries of the Mediterranean, men who engage with sex with other men do not consider themselves gay if they take the active partner, or top. Plutarch considered the legendary strongman a bit of a slut: 'And as to the loves of Hercules, it is difficult to record them because of their number.'

Greek culture may have looked down on those who enjoyed penetrative sexual activity but it certainly countenanced sexual love between two men, especially in myth and legend. Hercules, whose twelve labours, his strength and one-time Argonaut ensured his place in world mythology did marry and have children, the great love of his life had been the beautiful young prince Hylas. Something that Disney and several 'sword and sandal' epics, starring the former Mr Universe Steve Reeves, have failed to relate in their versions of the legendary strongman.

Hercules, however, was only part-god. Zeus, meanwhile, was the mightiest god of all, and true to form he loved boys as much as any mortal. His passion for Ganymede was so overwhelming he even changed into a bird of prey in order to possess the youth. Ganymede was the son of Tros, an early kind of Troy and the abduction of Helen by Paris and the subsequent siege of that legendary city in Asia Minor that led to Homer's Iliad, which Sergio Leone, the Italian film director, claimed to have been the first Western. Indeed, before finding global fame with Clint Eastwood, Leone directed one of the best 'sword and sandal' epics of the late fifties and early sixties.

These homoerotic classics of pulp cinema were hugely successful and satisfied a cult following in the United States where the subtext was all to obvious to young, impressionable minds that were coming to terms with their sexuality. Yet how few would realise that Hercules, as played by the likes of Steve Reeves, was, in legend if not in reality, a lover of men as much as they were. These 'peplum' movies were quickly overtaken in popularity by the spaghetti western but their pop versions of the myths and legends of antiquity, usually Ancient Greece but some of Rome as well, failed to uncover the whole truth behind those who fought at Troy.

Book XV of Homer's classic details the events that lead up to and include the death of Patroclus, a close friend of Achilles, although how close the writer never makes clear. Patroclus steals the armour of the hero but is killed by Hector, the Trojan prince, who acquires Achilles' armour as a trophy. With the retrieval of Patroclus' corpse by Menelaus, from whose dominion Helen was kidnapped, Achilles vows to avenge the death of his young companion. Achilles organises a funeral pyre and along with the body of Patroclus twelve Trojans are cremated with games held in his honour. Alexander Pope's translation of Homer's classic in the section, detailing the death of Patroclus, leaves little to the imagination as to the grief engendered by his loss, especially by Achilles:

Hear then; and as in Fate and Love we joyn,
Ah suffer that my Bones may rest with thine!
Together have we liv'd, together bred,
One House receiv'd us, and one Table fed;
That golden Urn thy Goddess Mother gave
May mix our Ashes in one common Grave.

It was the feats and stories of Hercules, Achilles and Patroclus that inspired a young Alexander. By the time he was in his thirty-third year he had conquered pretty much what was known of the world, as far as the Ancient Greeks were concerned. With the possible exception of Napoleon, he is probably the greatest general who ever lived and he is unlikely ever to be surpassed.

How much of a hand he had in the death of his father shall never be known for sure, but he was just as likely to spend a night of pleasure with a boy as a woman. Alexander certainly married but it was probably more to do with politics than true love, or even lust.

Following in his father's footsteps, as it were, Alexander sought pleasure with eunuchs, Medius and Bagoas being favourites. Orsines, one of Alexander's satraps, or viceroys, was ordered to be put to death because he refused to talk to Bagoas, as he disliked speaking to a man who would prostitute himself like a woman.

If Alexander ever had a love of his life it was probably Hephaestion, his long-time companion, at whose grief Alexander was laid so low that it resulted in the death of the physician who had failed to save the ailing Hephaestion.

The Cynic philosophers said a long time after Alexander's demise that the all-conquering hero was defeated only once and that was by Hephaestion's thighs. They still lovers by the time of his death, despite the traditional view that Greek men should have passed their sexual sell-by date, although Hephaestion's age was not known. He could have been the older lover but history has left us a blank on that score, although he eventually led Alexander's cavalry as well as being promoted to being Alexander's Vizier. His death has been considered worthy of posthumous worship, dying a suitably heroic death worthy of the lover of the first man to conquer the world. 'Sex and sleep,' Alexander is quoted as having once said, 'alone make me conscious that I am mortal.'

Alexander's empire, after his death, fell apart as quickly as it had been conquered and he too became part of the great tapestry of military history. His legacy in the annals of military history is still with us. In his short life he turned the whole notion of warfare on its head. For those that had gone before, he combined the basic principles of tactical concentration of one's forces, uniting the different elements as never before and sustaining offence from defence. He defied convention by living off the land no matter what the terrain, climate or culture. His campaigns took his men over borders and into lands that were totally unfamiliar to them and his exploits would inspire many other military leaders to attempt to if not surpass but certainly equal him in conquest. One of those men would be Julius Caesar.

© Howard Watson 2009