27. The Man Who Destroyed Thebes’ Elite Homosexual Unit
In a bit of historic irony, the man who destroyed Thebes’ homosexual elite unit, King Philip II of Macedon, himself came to grief because of a sordid scandal. In the first half of the fourth century BC, Thebes and Sparta vied for the dominance of Greece. While they fought each other, a new power was rising in the north that would soon eclipse both. In 359 BC, twenty-three-year-old Philip II (382 – 336 BC) ascended the throne of Macedon.
Within two decades, Macedon’s new monarch would change the face of Greece, and warfare would never be the same again. Greeks viewed Macedon as a barely civilized kingdom that spoke a barely intelligible Greek dialect. The kingdom had a lot of potential, both in manpower and resources that far exceeded those of any Greek city state. However, it had yet to realize that potential. Philip unified Macedon’s fractious tribes and transformed them into the world’s most respected and feared military machine.