The Order of Chaeronea was a secret society for the cultivation of a homosexual moral, ethical, cultural and spiritual ethos. It was founded by George Cecil Ives in 1897, as a result of his realization that the "Cause" (the end of the oppression of homosexuals) would not be accepted openly in society and must therefore have a means of underground communication. The society is named after the location of the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC) where the Sacred Band of Thebes was finally annihilated in 338 BC.