300 paired lovers died in ordered rows rather than break ranks

At Chaeronea in 338 BC, Philip II of Macedon -- with his 18-year-old son Alexander commanding the cavalry -- crushed the combined armies of Athens and Thebes. Thebes's elite Sacred Band, 300 paired lovers who had never lost a battle, died fighting rather than break ranks; excavators later found their mass grave with skeletons still lying in ordered rows.

— Plutarch, Parallel Lives (Life of Pelopidas) — written c. 100 AD
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