Page 400 - Beholding Liberty!

ΙΙΙ.2
The “Old man” of the Morea
Theodoros Kolokotronis (1770-1843)
BORN UNDER A TREE ON A MOUNTAIN OF MESSINIA, «called Ramavouni», he became an orphan of father at the age of 10. From a very young age he joined the lines of the klephts (bandits-fighters). In 1802, persecuted by the Turks, he was forced to flee with his family to Zakynthos, where he served in the English army as major in a regiment of Greek volunteers.
In 1818 he was initiated in the Society of Friends and in early 1821 he landed in Mani, to take part in the Struggle. He played a leading role in many crucial for the Greeks confrontations, such as the surrender of Kalamata (23 March 1821), the victo- ries at Valtetsi, Vervena and Doliana (May 1821) and the siege of Tripolitsa (23 September 1821), which offered him prestige, causing at the same time the reaction of many local agents. His historical victory at Dervenakia (26 July 1822), where he decimated the army of Dramalis, rescuing the revolution in the Peloponnese, ascertained yet again the strategic genius of the Old Man «Geros» of Moreas.
In the first civil war he lost his son Panos on 13 November 1824, a loss he never recovered from. In the second civil war he was arrested on 6 February 1825 and was put in prison at Profitis Ilias of Hydra. Finally, he was granted amnesty by the Governor, under the menace of Ibrahim’s landing in the Pelo- ponnese and the siege of Missolonghi by Kioutachis, and he was asked to return to the battlefields, so as to help with the interception of the advance of the Turkish-Egyptians.
Up until the end of the Revolution he never ceased to play an active role in the military and political affairs. He died in February 1843 and was buried, his funeral massively attend- ed, wearing his commander-in-chief uniform and bearing the sword he had in the Revolution.
400 BEHOLDING LIBERTY!
ΙΙΙ.2.1
Letter of the Peloponnesian Senate to Th. Kolokotronis on the topic of gathering troops from adjacent areas
(Corinth, 20 January 1822)
Archives of the Greek Regeneration, vol. 1, no 450 [pp. 450-451]
Library of the Hellenic Parliament
THE ADMINISTRATION ASSIGNS to Th. Kolokotro- nis the command-in-chief in the operations of western conti- nental Greeks, convinced about «your love for the race and the country, and that you sacrifice your life for the country». The in- structions given to Kolokotronis are to recruit forces from the surrounding regions and to take care for their orderly conduct, «to restrain themselves, that is, from seizing them and not to trouble any Christian in the least for their food and many other things».