The Value of Friendship #251540

Still more noteworthy, if possible, is the story of the Sacred Band of Thebans, a company of one hundred and fifty pair of friends. Two by two in a bond of sacred friendship these sol diers enlisted for a life-and-death struggle to gether; and such heroes they were, through being such friends, that their band was never overborne in conflict until the great battle of Chaeronea; and then they all stood and fell together, 'faithful unto death.' When Philip of Macedon looked down upon those three hundred hero-friends, dead in their armour, heaped one upon another, having met the spears of the phalanx face to face,' he marvelled at the sight; and learning that it was the Band of Friends, he burst into tears, and said, Perish those who would suspect these men of doing or abetting anything base!