Page 228 - Beholding Liberty!
P. 228
228 BEHOLDING LIBERTY!
The only scenes of the Frieze that are differentiated from the prevailing victorious ambience are the «Ravaging of the Peloponnese by Ibrahim» and the «Personification
of the city of Missolonghi».
It is the dark period of the civil strife, which almost condemned the Struggle to failure.
On one side the notables, who in the pre-revolution period possessed wealth and authority, and on the other side the chieftains, who proved themselves in the battlefields,
all claimed the share that they deserved
in public affairs.
Added to the equation of the sharing of power are also the Phanariots, taking the side
of notables, while members of the Society
of Friends stand by the military men.
Finally, contrasts of localism were not missing, as those between the inhabitants
of Central Greece (the Roumeliots) and
the Peloponnesians.
All the while the Greeks are devastated by civil strife, the Sultan invites for reinforcment the Egyptian forces of Ibrahim pasha, who burns down Kassos and Psara and causes destruction in Crete. In 1825 Ibrahim lands in the Peloponnese and literally ravages it. In 1826
he advances to Missolonghi, where Mahmut
