Konstantinos Metaxas

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Konstantinos Metaxas (Greek : Κωνσταντίνος Μεταξάς, 1793–1870) was a Greek fighter of the Greek War of Independence and politician from Cephalonia.

Greek language language spoken in Greece, Cyprus and Southern Albania

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3000 years of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

The Greeks or Hellenes are an ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt and, to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world.

Greek War of Independence War of independence waged by Greek revolutionaries

The Greek War of Independence, also known as the Greek Revolution, was a successful war of independence waged by Greek revolutionaries against the Ottoman Empire between 1821 and 1830. The Greeks were later assisted by the Russian Empire, Great Britain, and the Kingdom of France, while the Ottomans were aided by their North African vassals, the eyalets of Egypt, Algeria, and Tripolitania, and the Beylik of Tunis.

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Biography

Origin and activity in the War of Independence

He was born in Argostoli in 1793, as one of the four children of Nicholas Metaxas and Diamantina Andritsi. He studied law in Italy and returning to Cephalonia he worked as a lawyer. On the eve of the Greek Revolution he was initiated into the Filiki Eteria and in cooperation with the local archbishop Germanos, he organized the forthcoming local volunteer campaign in the Peloponnese. [1] In May 1821, along with his cousin, Andreas Metaxas, he was one of the chiefs of the Cephalonian volunteers who disembarked at Glarentza and took part in the siege of Lala. [2] Later, he participated as head of his compatriots in the battles around the city of Patras, but he suffered from typhus and he was transferred for treatment to Messolonghi. [3]

Argostoli Place in Greece

Argostoli is a town and a former municipality on the island of Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Kefalonia, of which it is a municipal unit. It has been the capital and administrative centre of Kefalonia since 1757, following a population shift down from the old capital of Agios Georgios to take advantage of the trading opportunities provided by the sheltered bay upon which Argostoli sits. Argostoli developed into one of the busiest ports in Greece, leading to prosperity and growth. The municipal unit has an area of 157.670 km2. The 2011 census recorded a population of 10,633 in the Argostoli municipal unit. Its largest towns are Argostóli, Razata (507), Dilináta (496) and Kompothekráta (449).

Filiki Eteria organization

Filiki Eteria or Society of Friends was a secret organization founded in 1814 in Odessa, whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state. Society members were mainly young Phanariot Greeks from Constantinople and the Russian Empire, local political and military leaders from the Greek mainland and islands, as well as several Orthodox Christian leaders from other nations that were under Hellenic influence, such as Karađorđe from Serbia Tudor Vladimirescu from Romania, and Arvanite military commanders. One of its leaders was the prominent Phanariote Prince Alexander Ypsilantis. The Society initiated the Greek War of Independence in the spring of 1821.

Peloponnese Traditional region in Greece

The Peloponnese or Peloponnesus is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is connected to the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth land bridge which separates the Gulf of Corinth from the Saronic Gulf. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea, a name still in colloquial use in its demotic form.

In 1822, he was appointed by the Provisional Government as Minister of Justice and then as commissioner of the Aegean islands. For his services he was promoted to the rank of general at the beginning of 1823. [4] [5] The same year Metaxas was appointed as prefect of Western Continental Greece. [5] [6] With headquarters in Messolonghi, he ended the disputes between the chieftains of Western Greece and contributed to repel of Mustai Pasha of Skodra's troops. [7] In 1825, he participated in the operations against Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt and became commandant of Palamidi fortress. [5] When the danger of an attack by Ibrahim on Nafplio was removed, he went to the Aegean islands where he recruited about a thousand men. [8] In 1826 he fought in the anti-piracy operations in the Aegean, as well as in the conflicts in Attica as was chief of the Ionian forces, while in 1827 he participated in the staff of general Richard Church. [9]

Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt Ottoman politician and general

Ibrahim Pasha was the eldest son of Muhammad Ali, the Wāli and unrecognised Khedive of Egypt and Sudan. He served as a general in the Egyptian army that his father established during his reign, taking his first command of Egyptian forces when he was merely a teenager. In the final year of his life, he succeeded his still living father as ruler of Egypt and Sudan, due to the latter's ill health. His rule also extended over the other dominions that his father had brought under Egyptian rule, namely Syria, Hejaz, Morea, Thasos, and Crete. Ibrahim pre-deceased his father, dying 10 November 1848, only four months after acceding to the throne. Upon his father's death the following year, the Egyptian throne passed to Ibrahim's nephew, Abbas.

Palamidi Venetian fortress in Nafplio

Palamidi is a fortress to the east of the Acronauplia in the town of Nafplio in the Peloponnese region of southern Greece. Nestled on the crest of a 216-metre high hill, the fortress was built by the Venetians during their second occupation of the area (1686–1715).

Nafplio Place in Greece

Nafplio is a seaport town in the Peloponnese in Greece that has expanded up the hillsides near the north end of the Argolic Gulf. The town was an important seaport held under a succession of royal houses in the Middle Ages as part of the lordship of Argos and Nauplia, held initially by the de la Roche following the Fourth Crusade before coming under the Republic of Venice and, lastly, the Ottoman Empire. The town was the capital of the First Hellenic Republic and of the Kingdom of Greece, from the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821 until 1834. Nafplio is now the capital of the regional unit of Argolis.

Career in the independent Greek state

During the governorship of Ioannis Kapodistrias, Metaxas served as temporary commissioner of the Cyclades and then participated in the Fourth National Assembly at Argos as a representative of the Peloponnesians. [5] During the years of the Regency he experienced prosecutions and he fled to the Ionian Islands. From there he returned to Greece in 1843, and was placed as a member of the Council of State. In 1855 he received the rank of colonel of the Royal Phalanx. In 1861 he was appointed as a senator. After the abolition of the institution he retired to his hometown where he wrote the "Memoirs of the Greek Revolution", which were released after his death. Konstantinos Metaxas died in 1870 in Cephalonia. [10]

Ioannis Kapodistrias Governor of the First Hellenic Republic

Count Ioannis Antonios Kapodistrias, sometimes anglicized as John Capodistrias, was a Greek statesman who served as the Foreign Minister of the Russian Empire and was one of the most distinguished politicians and diplomats of Europe. After a long and distinguished career in European politics and diplomacy he was elected as the first head of state of independent Greece (1827–31). He is considered a founder of the modern Greek state, and the architect of Greek independence.

Cyclades Former prefecture in South Aegean, Greece

The Cyclades are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The name refers to the islands around (κυκλάς) the sacred island of Delos. The largest island of the Cyclades is Naxos.

The Fourth National Assembly at Argos was a Greek convention which sat at Argos from 11 July to 6 August 1829, during the Greek War of Independence.

He was married from 1830 to the daughter of a rich and illustrious Muslim family of Laconia, who was saved from the massive massacres of her co-religionists and converted to Christianity adopting the name Eleni. From their marriage, they had eight children [10] among whom was the military officer and cabinet minister Nikolaos Metaxas. [5]

Laconia Regional unit in Peloponnese, Greece

Laconia is a region of Greece in the southeastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. Its administrative capital is Sparta. The word laconic is derived from the name of the region by analogy—to speak in a concise way, as the Spartans were reputed by the Athenians to do.

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References

  1. ↑ Anastasios N. Goudas, Βίοι Παράλληλοι των επί της αναγεννήσεως της Ελλάδος διαπρεψάντων ανδρών, Εκ του Τυπογραφείου Μ. Π. Περίδου, Athens, 1875, vol. 7, p. 157.
  2. ↑ Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 157 - 158.
  3. ↑ Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 158.
  4. ↑ Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 159.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 Σύγχρονος Εγκυκλοπαίδεια Ελευθερουδάκη, vol. 17, p. 369.
  6. ↑ Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 160.
  7. ↑ Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 160-161.
  8. ↑ Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 162.
  9. ↑ Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 162-163
  10. 1 2 Goudas, 1875, vol. 7, p. 164
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