Sacred Band of Carthage

The Sacred Band of Carthage is the name used by ancient Greek historians to refer to an elite infantry unit of Carthaginian citizens that served in military campaigns during the fourth century BC.

It consisted of 2,000-3,000 heavy infantry drawn from the wealthiest families of Carthage; Plutarch describes its members as "inferior to none among them as to birth, wealth, or reputation" and distinguished by "the splendour of their arms, and the slowness and order of their march".

[2][3] As in many Greek city-states and the early Roman Republic, members of the Sacred Band were armed and equipped at their own expense, and thus had high quality armor and weaponry.

"Even the Carthaginians who composed the Sacred Band, twenty-five hundred in number and drawn from the ranks of those citizens who were distinguished for valour and reputation as well as for wealth, were all cut down after a gallant struggle".

He describes Carthaginian forces as consisting of 10,000 infantrymen bearing white shields, wearing splendorous armor, and marching in a disciplined manner.