Page 189 - Beholding Liberty!

HALL OF THE TROPHIES
IΙ.1.29
Document of the commanders-in-chief in the siege of Lala to the Executive (Divri, 16 June 1821)
Archives of the Greek Regeneration, vol. 1, no 334 [p. 334] Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE BATTLE OF LALA, in mountainous Elis, was one of the first victorious operations of the revolted Greeks in the Peloponnese, which paved the way for the occupation of Tripolitsa, on 23 September 1821.
The commanders-in-chief, Petrobeis Mavromichalis, Dimitrakis Plapoutas, Georgios Sisinis and Panagiotis Fotilas, finding themselves in Divri, co-sign the let- ter in which they ascertain that captain Evangelos Panas from Kephalonia took part in the battles that were conducted against the Lalaians, having with him two cannons and one hundred thirty experienced Kephalinian fighters, whom he actually gathered at his own expense. In the first and second battle only one of his soldiers was killed and one wounded; in the third one, however, five were killed and twelve wounded, among them Panas himself, too.
IΙ.1.30
Heartening letter of the President of the Executive to the Peloponnesians, in which they are paralleled
to the ancient Spartans (Argos, 8 June 1822)
Archives of the Greek Regeneration, vol. 1, no 336 [pp. 336-337] Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE COMPARISON TO HEROES of antiquity, such as Leonidas and Miltiades, is a «com- mon place» in the practices of praising and heart- ening the revolted, since –through them- it was possible to achieve the symbolic identification with the ancient Greeks, whose worthy continuators the heroes of the Greek Revolution aspired to be.
Greeks’ national poet, Dionysios Solomos, in the 78th stanza (lines 309-312) of the Hymn to liberty also exclaims: «Oh! Three hundred men! Rise and come back to us; see your children how much they resemble you».
SCENES AND FIGURES OF FREEDOM The eruption of the Revolution 189