The Morea expedition (french: link=no, Expédition de Morée) is the name given to the land intervention of the French Army in the Peloponnese
Morea
The Morea ( el, Μορέας or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman ...
is the name of the Peloponnese region in Greece, which was mainly used from the medieval period to the 19th century. This name comes from the ancient Greek or , which means
mulberry
''Morus'', a genus of flowering plants in the family Moraceae, consists of diverse species of deciduous trees commonly known as mulberries, growing wild and under cultivation in many temperate world regions. Generally, the genus has 64 identif ...
, a tree very abundant in the peninsula. in Michel Schinas, Mémoire sur l'état présent de la Morée ', Archives of the Académie des Sciences of the Institut de France, File: Commission de Morée (1830). Annotated and commented by A. Panayiotopoulou-Gavatha. Παναγιωτοπούλου–Γαβαθά, Α. (2016). Ένα υπόμνημα του Μ. Σχινά για την κατάσταση της Πελοποννήσου στα 1830. Σχολιασμένη έκδοση. ''The Gleaner, 11'', 333-362. doi:https://doi.org/10.12681/er.9408 between 1828 and 1833, at the time of the Greek War of Independence, with the aim of expelling from the region the Ottoman-Egyptian occupation forces. It was also accompanied by a
scientific
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence f ...
expedition mandated by the French Academy.
After the fall of Messolonghi in 1826, the Western European powers decided to intervene in favour of revolutionary Greece. Their primary objective was to force Ibrahim Pasha, the Ottoman Empire's Egyptian ally, to evacuate the occupied regions and the Peloponnese. The intervention began when a
Franco
Franco may refer to:
Name
* Franco (name)
* Francisco Franco (1892–1975), Spanish general and dictator of Spain from 1939 to 1975
* Franco Luambo (1938–1989), Congolese musician, the "Grand Maître"
Prefix
* Franco, a prefix used when re ...
British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
fleet was sent to the region and won the
Battle of Navarino
The Battle of Navarino was a naval battle fought on 20 October (O. S. 8 October) 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–29), in Navarino Bay (modern Pylos), on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian Sea. Allied f ...
in October 1827, destroying the entire Turkish-Egyptian fleet. In August 1828, a French expeditionary corps of 15,000 men led by General Nicolas-Joseph Maison landed in the southwestern Peloponnese. During October, soldiers took control of the principal strongholds still held by the Turkish troops. Although the bulk of the troops returned to France in early 1829 after an eight month-deployment, the French kept a military presence in the area until 1833. The French army would suffer about 1,500 dead, mainly due to fever and
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
.
As had occurred during
Napoleon's
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
Egyptian Campaign
The French campaign in Egypt and Syria (1798–1801) was Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in the Ottoman territories of Egypt and Syria, proclaimed to defend French trade interests, to establish scientific enterprise in the region. It was the pr ...
, when a
Commission des Sciences et des Arts
The Commission des Sciences et des Arts (''Commission of the Sciences and Arts'') was a French scientific and artistic institute. Established on 16 March 1798, it consisted of 167 members, of which all but 16 joined Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest ...
accompanied the military campaign, a scientific commission (''Expédition scientifique de Morée'') was attached to the French troops and placed under the supervision of three
academies
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, ...
archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
and
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
- sculpture made the voyage to Greece in March 1829; most of them stayed there for nine months. Their work proved essential to the ongoing development of the new Greek State and, more broadly, marked a major milestone in the modern history of archaeology, cartography and natural sciences, as well as in the study of Greece.Yiannis Saïtas et al., ''L'œuvre de l'expédition scientifique de Morée 1829-1838'', Edited by Yiannis Saïtas, Editions Melissa, 2011 (Part I) - 2017 (Part II).Marie-Noëlle Bourguet, Bernard Lepetit, , Maroula Sinarellis, ''L’Invention scientifique de la Méditerranée. Égypte, Morée, Algérie.'', Éditions de l’EHESS, 1998. ()
Context
Military and diplomatic context
In 1821, the Greeks revolted against centuries-long
Ottoman rule
Ottoman is the Turkish spelling of the Arabic masculine given name Uthman ( ar, عُثْمان, ‘uthmān). It may refer to:
Governments and dynasties
* Ottoman Caliphate, an Islamic caliphate from 1517 to 1924
* Ottoman Empire, in existence fr ...
. They won numerous victories early on and declared independence on 1 January 1822. However, the declaration contradicted the principles of the
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...
and of the Holy Alliance, which imposed a European equilibrium of the ''status quo'', outlawing any possible change. In contrast to what happened elsewhere in Europe, the Holy Alliance did not intervene to stop the
liberal
Liberal or liberalism may refer to:
Politics
* a supporter of liberalism
** Liberalism by country
* an adherent of a Liberal Party
* Liberalism (international relations)
* Sexually liberal feminism
* Social liberalism
Arts, entertainment and ...
Greek insurgents.
The liberal and national uprising displeased Metternich, chancellor of the
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire (german: link=no, Kaiserthum Oesterreich, modern spelling , ) was a Central-Eastern European multinational great power from 1804 to 1867, created by proclamation out of the realms of the Habsburgs. During its existence, ...
and the principal political architect of the Holy Alliance. Russia looked favourably on the insurrection due to its
Orthodox
Orthodox, Orthodoxy, or Orthodoxism may refer to:
Religion
* Orthodoxy, adherence to accepted norms, more specifically adherence to creeds, especially within Christianity and Judaism, but also less commonly in non-Abrahamic religions like Neo-pa ...
religious solidarity and its geostrategic interest (control of the Dardanelles and the
Bosphorus
The Bosporus Strait (; grc, Βόσπορος ; tr, İstanbul Boğazı 'Istanbul strait', colloquially ''Boğaz'') or Bosphorus Strait is a natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in Istanbul in northwestern Tu ...
). France, another active member of the Holy Alliance, had just intervened in Spain against liberals at Trocadero (1823) but held an ambiguous position: Paris saw the liberal Greeks first and foremost as Christians, and their uprising against the Muslim Ottomans had undertones of a new crusade. Great Britain, a liberal country, was interested in the situation of the region, primarily because it was on the route to India and London wished to exert there a form of control.Christopher Montague Woodhouse, ''The Philhellenes'', London, Hodder et Stoughton, 1969, 192 p. Finally, for all of Europe, Greece represented the cradle of Western civilisation and of art since
antiquity
Antiquity or Antiquities may refer to:
Historical objects or periods Artifacts
*Antiquities, objects or artifacts surviving from ancient cultures
Eras
Any period before the European Middle Ages (5th to 15th centuries) but still within the histo ...
.
The Greek victories had been short-lived. The Sultan had called for aid from his Egyptian vassal
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
, who dispatched his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with a fleet and 8,000 men, and later added 25,000 troops.''An Index of events in the military history of the Greek nation.'', Hellenic Army General Staff, Army History Directorate, Athens, 1998, pp. 51 and 54.
Ibrahim's intervention proved decisive: much of the Peloponnese was reconquered in 1825; the gateway town of
Messolonghi
Missolonghi or Messolonghi ( el, Μεσολόγγι, ) is a municipality of 34,416 people (according to the 2011 census) in western Greece. The town is the capital of Aetolia-Acarnania regional unit, and the seat of the municipality of Iera Polis ...
fell in 1826; and Athens was taken in 1827. The only territory still held by Greek nationalists was in Nafplion,
Mani
Mani may refer to:
Geography
* Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia
* Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad
* Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece
* Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshina ...
Spetses
Spetses ( el, Σπέτσες, grc, Πιτυούσσα "Pityussa", Arvanitika: Πετσε̱) is an upscale affluent island in Attica, Greece. It is included as one of the Saronic Islands. Until 1948, it was part of the old prefecture of Argolis ...
Lord Byron
George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824), known simply as Lord Byron, was an English romantic poet and Peerage of the United Kingdom, peer. He was one of the leading figures of the Romantic movement, and h ...
had died in 1824. Many artists and intellectuals such as
François-René de Chateaubriand
François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician, diplomat and historian who had a notable influence on French literature of the nineteenth century. Descended from an old aristocrati ...
Alexander Pushkin
Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin (; rus, links=no, Александр Сергеевич ПушкинIn pre-Revolutionary script, his name was written ., r=Aleksandr Sergeyevich Pushkin, p=ɐlʲɪkˈsandr sʲɪrˈɡʲe(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈpuʂkʲɪn, ...
,
Gioachino Rossini
Gioachino Antonio Rossini (29 February 1792 – 13 November 1868) was an Italian composer who gained fame for his 39 operas, although he also wrote many songs, some chamber music and piano pieces, and some sacred music. He set new standards f ...
,
Hector Berlioz
In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...
or Eugène Delacroix (in his paintings of '' The Massacre at Chios'' in 1824, and of '' Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi'' in 1826), amplified the current of sympathy for the Greek cause in the public opinion. The European powers eventually decided to intervene in favour of Greece—a Christian vanguard in the Orient—whose strategic location in containing Muslim expansion was obvious to those political powers. By the Treaty of London of 6 July 1827,The text on Gallica /ref> France, Russia and the United Kingdom recognised the autonomy of Greece, which remained a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The three powers agreed to a limited intervention in order to convince the
Porte
Porte may refer to:
*Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman empire
*Porte, Piedmont, a municipality in the Piedmont region of Italy
*John Cyril Porte, British/Irish aviator
*Richie Porte, Australian professional cyclist who competes ...
to accept the terms of the convention. A plan to send a naval expedition as a demonstration of force was proposed and adopted; subsequently a joint Russian, French and British fleet was sent to exert diplomatic pressure against Constantinople. The
Battle of Navarino
The Battle of Navarino was a naval battle fought on 20 October (O. S. 8 October) 1827, during the Greek War of Independence (1821–29), in Navarino Bay (modern Pylos), on the west coast of the Peloponnese peninsula, in the Ionian Sea. Allied f ...
(20 October 1827) resulted in the complete destruction of the Turkish-Egyptian fleet.
In 1828, Ibrahim Pasha thus found himself in a difficult situation: he had just suffered a defeat at Navarino; the joint fleet enforced a blockade which prevented him from receiving reinforcements and supplies; and his Albanian troops, whom he could no longer pay, had returned to their country under the protection of
Theodoros Kolokotronis
Theodoros Kolokotronis ( el, Θεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης; 3 April 1770 – 4 February 1843) was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) against the Ottoman Empire. Kolokotronis's gr ...
' Greek troops. On 6 August 1828, a convention had been signed at
Alexandria
Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
between the viceroy of Egypt,
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
, and the British admiral Edward Codrington. By its terms, Ibrahim Pasha was required to evacuate his Egyptian troops and leave the Peloponnese to the few Turkish troops (estimated at 1,200 men) remaining there, but he refused to honour the agreement and continued to control various Greek regions: Messenia, Navarino, and Patras as well as several other strongholds—and even ordered the systematic destruction of Tripolitza.
Meanwhile, the French government of
Charles X
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Loui ...
was beginning to have doubts about its Greek policy. Ibrahim Pasha himself noted this ambiguity when he met General Maison in September. Eventually a pro-Greek liberal movement, inspired by what was then happening in Greece, began to develop in France. The longer France waited to act, the more delicate her position vis-à-vis Metternich became. The ultra-royalist government thus decided to accelerate events. A proposal to send a joint land expedition was made to Great Britain, which refused to intervene directly. Meanwhile, Russia had declared war against the Ottoman Empire and its military victories were unsettling for Great Britain, which did not wish to see the Tsarist empire extend too far south, and compelled it to not oppose an intervention by France alone.
Intellectual context
Enlightenment philosophy had stimulated Western Europeans' interest in Greece, or rather in an idealised
ancient Greece
Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cult ...
, the linchpin of classical antiquity as it was perceived and taught in academe. Enlightenment philosophers, for whom the notions of Nature and Reason were so important, believed that these had been the fundamental values of classical Athens. The ancient Greek democracies, and above all Athens, became models to emulate. There they searched for answers to the political and philosophical problems of their time. Works such as Abbé Barthélemy's '' Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis'' (1788) served to fix definitively the image that Europe had of the Aegean.
The theories and system of interpreting ancient art devised by Johann Joachim Winckelmann influenced European tastes for decades. His major work, ''History of Ancient Art'', was published in 1764 and translated into French in 1766 (the English translation did not appear until 1881). In this major work Winckelmann initiated the tradition of dividing ancient art into periods, classifying the works chronologically and stylistically.
The views of Winckelmann on art encompassed the entirety of civilisation. He drew a parallel between a civilisation's general level of development and the evolution of its art. He interpreted this artistic evolution the same way that his contemporaries saw the life cycle of a civilisation in terms of progress—apogee and then decline. For him, the golden age of Greek art had been the pinnacle of artistic achievement, culminating with the career of the sculptor Phidias. Further, Winckelmann believed that the most beautiful works of Greek art had been produced under ideal geographic, political and religious circumstances. This frame of thought long dominated intellectual life in Europe. He classified Greek art into four periods: Ancient (archaic period), Sublime (Phidias), Beautiful (
Praxiteles
Praxiteles (; el, Πραξιτέλης) of Athens, the son of Cephisodotus the Elder, was the most renowned of the Attica sculptors of the 4th century BC. He was the first to sculpt the nude female form in a life-size statue. While no indubitab ...
) and Decadent (Roman period).
Winckelmann concluded his theory on the evolution of art with an explication of the Sublime period of Greek art, which had been conceived during a period of political and religious liberty. His theories idealised ancient Greece and increased Europeans's desire to travel to contemporary Greece. It was seductive to believe, as he did, that 'good taste' was born beneath the Greek sky. He persuaded 18th-century Europe that life in ancient Greece was pure, simple and moral, and that classical Hellas was the source from which artists should draw ideas of "noble simplicity and calm grandeur". Greece became the "motherland of the arts" and "the teacher of taste".
The French government had planned the Morea expedition in the same spirit as those of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, whose work it wished to complete. The semi-scientific expeditions commissioned and financed by the Society of Dilettanti remained a benchmark: these represented the first attempts to rediscover ancient Greece. The first, that of Stuart and Revett to Athens and the islands, took place in 1751–1753, and resulted in publication of ''The Antiquities of Athens'', a work mined by architects and designers for models of a refined "Grecian"
neoclassicism
Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative arts, decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. ...
. The expedition of Revett, Richard Chandler and William Pars to Asia Minor took place between 1764 and 1766. Finally, the removal by
Lord Elgin
Earl of Elgin is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1633 for Thomas Bruce, 3rd Lord Kinloss. He was later created Baron Bruce, of Whorlton in the County of York, in the Peerage of England on 30 July 1641. The Earl of Elgin is the h ...
of half of the surviving marble sculptures of the Parthenon, as well as sculptures from other buildings, and their transport to Britain at the beginning of the 19th century, had inspired further philhellenic longing for the cultural glories of ancient Greece: it now seemed possible to build vast collections of ancient art in Western Europe.
The Chamber of Deputies authorised a loan of 80 million gold francs to allow the government to meet its obligations for the expedition. An expeditionary corps of 13,000–15,000 men commanded by Lieutenant-General
Horace Sébastiani
Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his '' ...
sapper
A sapper, also called a pioneer or combat engineer, is a combatant or soldier who performs a variety of military engineering duties, such as breaching fortifications, demolitions, bridge-building, laying or clearing minefields, preparing fie ...
s (combat engineers) and miners.
A transport fleet protected by warships was organised; sixty ships sailed in all. Equipment, victuals, munitions and 1,300 horses had to be brought over, as well as arms, munitions and money for the Greek provisional government of Ioannis Kapodistrias. France wished to support the first steps of free Greece by helping it developing its own army. The aim was also to gain influence in the region.
After a brief and energetic proclamationSOLDATS, De concert avec ses alliés, votre Roi vous charge d'une grande et noble mission ; vous êtes appelés à mettre un terme à l'oppression d'un peuple célèbre. Cette entreprise, qui honore la France, et à laquelle tous les cœurs généreux applaudissent, ouvre devant vous une carrière de gloire que vous saurez remplir ; j'en ai pour garans les sentimens et l'ardeur qui vous animent. Pour la première fois depuis le treizième siècle, nos drapeaux, aujourd'hui libérateurs, vont apparaître aux rivages de la Grèce. Soldats, la dignité de la couronne, l'honneur de la patrie attendent un nouvel éclat de vos triomphes. Dans quelque situation que les événemens vous placent, vous n'oublierez pas que de chers intérêts vous sont confiés. Des privations et des fatigues vous attendent, vous les supporterez avec courage, et vos chefs vous en donneront l'exemple ! ! ! Le Lieutenant-Général, Pair de France, commandant l'Expédition de Morée, Marquis MAISON. (in Alexandre Duheaume, Captain in the 58th Line Infantry Regiment, ''Souvenirs de la Morée, pour servir à l'histoire de l'expédition française en 1828-1829,'' Anselin, Paris, 1833.) by General-in-Chief Nicholas Joseph Maison was read to the companies assembled the day before boarding, the first brigade left
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...
on 17 August; the second, two days later; and the third on September 2 in a second distinct convoy. The general in command, Nicolas Joseph Maison, was with the first brigade, aboard the ship of the line '' Ville de Marseille''. The first convoy was composed of merchant ships and was escorted by the frigates ''
Amphitrite
In ancient Greek mythology, Amphitrite (; grc-gre, Ἀμφιτρίτη, Amphitrítē) was the goddess of the sea, the queen of the sea, and the wife of Poseidon. She was a daughter of Nereus and Doris (or Oceanus and Tethys).Roman, L., & ...
'', ''
Bellone
Bellone is a white Italian wine grape variety that wine historians believed was cultivated in Roman times. By 1990, nearly of the variety was still being cultivated and eligible to be blended in the wines of several Latium ''Denominazione di o ...
'' and '' Cybèle''. The second convoy was escorted by the ship of the line '' Duquesne'' and by the frigates ''
Iphigénie
''Iphigénie'' is a dramatic tragedy in five acts written in alexandrine verse by the French playwright Jean Racine. It was first performed in the Orangerie in Versailles on August 18, 1674, as part of the fifth of the royal ''Divertissements de ...
'' and '' Armide.''
File:Antoine Simon Durrieu.jpg, General Antoine Simon Durrieu (Chief of General Staff)
File:Sébastiani, Tiburce.jpg, General Tiburce Sébastiani (1st brigade)
File:Philippe Higonet.jpg, General Philippe Higonet (2nd brigade)
File:General Virgile Schneider.jpg, General Virgile Schneider (3rd brigade)
Operations in the Peloponnese
Landing
After a boat passage without problems, the first convoy transporting the two first brigades arrived on 28 August in Navarino bay, where the joint Franco-Russo-British squadron was berthed. With the Egyptian army ensconced between Navarino and Methoni, the landing was risky. After a two-hour meeting between General Maison and Admiral
Henri de Rigny
Marie Henri Daniel Gauthier, comte de Rigny (; 2 February 1782 – 6 November 1835) was the commander of the French squadron at the Battle of Navarino in the Greek War of Independence.
Biography
Family
He was a nephew of Baron Joseph Domin ...
, who came to meet him aboard the '' Conquérant'', the fleet sailed toward the
Messenian Gulf
The Messenian Gulf (, ''Messiniakós Kólpos'') is a sea that is part of the Ionian Sea. The gulf is circumscribed by the southern coasts of Messenia and the southwestern coast of the Mani peninsula in Laconia. Its bounds are Venetiko Isla ...
, whose southern entrance was protected by a fort held by the Ottomans in
Koroni
Koroni or Corone ( el, Κορώνη) is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is a municipal unit. Known as ''Corone' ...
. The expeditionary corps reached the northwest part of the Gulf and began disembarking on the evening of 29 August with no opposition, and finished on 30–31 August. Soldiers pitched camp north of the plain of Koroni, ten minutes north of the ruins of ancient
Coronea
Coroneia or Coronea or Koroneia ( grc, Κορώνεια) was a town of ancient Boeotia, and a member of the Boeotian League. It is described by Strabo as situated upon a height near Mount Helicon; its territory was called Κορωνειακή. The ...
(near Petalidi), on the banks of the rivers ''Djane'' (for the General Staff), ''Karakasili-Karya'' and ''Velika''. A proclamation by governor Ioannis Kapodistrias had informed the Greek population of the imminent arrival of a French expedition. It was said that the locals would have rushed up before the troops as soon as they set foot on Greek soil to offer them food. The 1st brigade commanded by Tiburce Sébastiani let the camp on 8 September for Koroni, on the heights of which it installed its camp. The 3rd brigade (2nd convoy), which had been carried by a fleet that sailed against a storm on the night of 16 September and lost three ships (including the brig ''Aimable Sophie'' which transported 22 horses of the 3rd Chasseur Regiment), managed to land at Petalidi on 22 September. On the 26th, it joined by sea the 2nd brigade, which had already moved by foot from Petalidi on 15 September and settled its ''camp of Djalova'' near Navarino. At their arrival on the Greek soil, the French found a country that had just been ravaged by Ibrahim's troops: villages razed to the ground, agricultural crops entirely burned and a population still living under a yoke of terror, starving and secluded in caves.Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval (painter, member of the scientific commission), '' Souvenirs (1829-1830)'', Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885.
I took the Venetian roadway from
Modon The Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones ( ar, الهيئة السعودية للمدن الصناعية ومناطق التقنية), also known simply as MODON ( ar, مُدُن) is a government organization created by the Go ...
, through the layers of ash and the coals of the olive trees whose valley was once shaded. Some caves open sadly on the way. In place of the villages, kiosks and towers that hung on the mountain's half-slope, one sees nothing any more but long charred walls, and the huts of the Pasha's troops in the form of clay boats, moored at the feet of the mountains. Once, I headed to the remains of a Byzantine church, where I thought I saw collapsed marble; but it turned out that the porch and the circuit were strewn with white skeletons. — Edgar Quinet
The day after we arrived, we went ashore, where the most dreadful spectacle I had seen in my life awaited me. In the middle of a few wooden huts built on the shore, outside the city ( Navarino), of which only ruins remained, circulated, hasty and ragged, men, women, children, who had nothing left human in features: some without noses, others without ears, all more or less covered with scars; but what moved us at the last point was a little child of four or five years old whom his brother led by the hand; I approached him: his eyes had been gouged out. Turks and Egyptians spared no one in this war. — Amaury-Duval
Departure of the Egyptian Army
According to the Convention of Alexandria (6 August 1828), signed by the viceroy of Egypt,
Muhammad Ali
Muhammad Ali (; born Cassius Marcellus Clay Jr.; January 17, 1942 – June 3, 2016) was an American professional boxer and activist. Nicknamed "The Greatest", he is regarded as one of the most significant sports figures of the 20th century, a ...
, and the British admiral Edward Codrington, Ibrahim Pasha was required to evacuate his Egyptian troops and leave the Peloponnese to the few Turkish troops (estimated at 1,200 men) remaining there. He used a number of pretexts to delay the evacuation: problems with food supply or transport, or unforeseen difficulties in handing over the strongholds. The French officers had problems restraining the fighting zeal of their soldiers, who for example had become excited at the (false) news of an imminent march on Athens. The impatience of the French troops was perhaps decisive in convincing the Egyptian commander to respect his obligations. Moreover, the French soldiers began to suffer from the autumnal rains that drenched the tents pitched in their camps and favoured the spread of fever and
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
.Charles-Joseph Bastide, '' Considérations sur les maladies qui ont régné en Morée, pendant la campagne de 1828'' (Internet Archive). Thesis presented publicly and defended at the Faculty of Medicine of Montpellier on 19 March 1830 by Charles-Joseph Bastide, Surgeon-Major of the 16th Line Infantry Regiment, to obtain the grade of Doctor of Medicine, imprimeur Jean Martel Aîné, Montpellier, 1830. On 24 September, Louis-Eugène Cavaignac wrote that thirty men of 400 in his company of military engineers were already affected by fever. General Maison wished to be able to set up his men in the fortresses' barracks.
On 7 September, following a long conference aboard the ship '' Conquérant'', in the presence of General Maison and the three allied Admirals, Ibrahim Pasha accepted the evacuation of his troops as of 9 September. The agreement provided that the Egyptians would leave with their arms, baggage and horses, but without any Greek slaves or prisoners. As the Egyptian fleet could not evacuate the entire army in one operation, supplies were authorised for the troops who remained on land; these men had just endured a lengthy blockade.A. Hugo, ''France militaire'', vol. 5, p. 317 A first Egyptian division, 5,500 men and 27 ships, set sail on September 16, escorted by three ships from the joint fleet (two English ones and the French frigate '' Sirène''). The day before, on 15 September, the French troops had moved their camp from ''Petalidi'' and had crossed the Messenian peninsula to the west in order to get closer to Navarino. They had set up their new camp north of the bay in the swampy plain of the ''Djalova'', two leagues north of Navarino. On 1 October, General Maison reviewed the entire French troops on the shore, in the presence of Ibrahim Pasha who came without escort, and of the Greek General
Nikitaras
Nikitaras ( el, Νικηταράς) was the nom de guerre of Nikitas Stamatelopoulos ( el, Νικήτας Σταματελόπουλος) (c. 17841849), a Greek revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence. Due to his fighting prowess, he was ...
. The French printer Jacques Mangeart gave a detailed description of this review in his ''Souvenirs''.
The evacuation continued throughout the month of September and the last Egyptian transport sailed away on 5 October, taking Ibrahim Pasha. Of the 40,000 men he had brought from Egypt, he was returning with barely 21,000.Nicolas-Joseph Maison (Lieutenant-General), ''Dépêches adressées au ministre de la Guerre Louis-Victor de Caux, vicomte de Blacquetot'', octobre 1828, in Jacques Mangeart, Additional Chapter in the Souvenirs de la Morée: recueillis pendant le séjour des Français dans le Péloponèse ', Igonette, Paris, 1830. A few Ottoman soldiers (2,500) remained to hold the different strongholds of the Peloponnese. The next mission of the French troops was to secure them, and hand them back to an independent Greece.
Strongholds taken
The dispatches sent by Lieutenant-General Nicolas-Joseph Maison, Commander in chief of the Morea expedition, to the Minister of War Louis-Victor de Caux de Blacquetot offer a detailed description of the taking of the strongholds of Morea during the month of October 1828.
= Navarino
=
On 6 October, the day after Ibrahim's departure, General Maison ordered General Philippe Higonet to march on Navarino. He left with the 16th Infantry Regiment, which included artillery and military engineers. Navarino's seacoast was put under siege by Admiral
Henri de Rigny
Marie Henri Daniel Gauthier, comte de Rigny (; 2 February 1782 – 6 November 1835) was the commander of the French squadron at the Battle of Navarino in the Greek War of Independence.
Biography
Family
He was a nephew of Baron Joseph Domin ...
’s fleet and the land siege was undertaken by General Higonet's soldiers. The Turkish commander of the fort refused to surrender: "The
Porte
Porte may refer to:
*Sublime Porte, the central government of the Ottoman empire
*Porte, Piedmont, a municipality in the Piedmont region of Italy
*John Cyril Porte, British/Irish aviator
*Richie Porte, Australian professional cyclist who competes ...
is at war with neither the French nor the English; we will commit no hostile act, but we will not surrender the fort". Whereupon the sappers were ordered to open a breach in the walls and General Higonet entered the fortress, held by 530 men who surrendered without a shot being fired, along with sixty cannon and 800,000 rounds of ammunition. The French troops settled permanently in Navarino, rebuilding its fortifications and houses and setting up a hospital and various features of local administration.
= Methoni
=
On 7 October, the 35th Line Infantry Regiment, commanded by General Antoine-Simon Durrieu, accompanied by artillery and by military engineers, appeared before Methoni, a better fortified city defended by 1,078 men and a hundred cannon, and which had food supplies for six months. Two ships of the line, the '' Breslaw'' (Captain Maillard) and (Captain
Frederick Lewis Maitland
Rear-Admiral Sir Frederick Lewis Maitland (7 September 177730 November 1839) was an officer in the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. He rose to the rank of rear admiral and held a number of commands. The most f ...
) blocked the port and threatened the fortress with their cannons. The fort's commanders, the Turk Hassan Pasha and the Egyptian Ahmed Bey, made the same reply as had the commander of Navarino. Methoni's fortifications were in better condition than those of Navarino, so the sappers focused on opening the city gate, which the city's garrison did not defend. The commanders of the fort later explained that they could not surrender it without disobeying the Sultan's orders, but also recognised that it was impossible for them to resist, thus the fort had to be taken, at least symbolically, by force. The French general granted them the same surrender conditions as in Navarino. The fortress of Methoni was taken and General Maison installed his apartments there (in the former home of Ibrahim Pasha), as well as the headquarters of the Morea expedition.
= Koroni
=
It was more difficult to take
Koroni
Koroni or Corone ( el, Κορώνη) is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is a municipal unit. Known as ''Corone' ...
. General Tiburce Sébastiani showed up there on 7 October with a part of his 1st brigade and announced the taking of the fortresses of Navarino and Methoni. The fort commander's response was similar to those given at Navarino and Methoni. Sébastiani sent his sappers, who were pushed back by rocks thrown from atop the walls. A dozen men were wounded, among them Cavaignac and, more seriously, a captain (Boutauld), a sergeant and three sappers. The other French soldiers felt insulted and their general had great difficulty in preventing them from opening fire and taking the stronghold by force. The ''Amphitrite'', the ''Breslaw'' and the ''Wellesley'' came to assist the ground troops. The threat they posed led the Ottoman commander to surrender. On October 9, the French entered Koroni and seized 80 cannon and guns, along with a store of victuals and munitions. The fortress was then given to the Greek troops of General
Nikitaras
Nikitaras ( el, Νικηταράς) was the nom de guerre of Nikitas Stamatelopoulos ( el, Νικήτας Σταματελόπουλος) (c. 17841849), a Greek revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence. Due to his fighting prowess, he was ...
who settled there.
= Patras
=
Patras had been controlled by Ibrahim Pasha's troops since his evacuation of the Peloponnese. The 3rd brigade commanded by General Virgile Schneider had been sent by sea to take the city, located in the north-western part of the peninsula. It landed on October 4. General Schneider gave Hadji Abdullah, Pasha of Patras and of the Castle of Morea, twenty-four hours to hand over the fort. On 5 October, when the ultimatum expired, three columns marched on the city and the artillery was deployed. The Pasha immediately signed the capitulation of Patras and of the Castle of Morea. However, the
aghas
Agha ( tr, ağa; ota, آغا; fa, آقا, āghā; "chief, master, lord") is an honorific title for a civilian or officer, or often part of such title. In the Ottoman times, some court functionaries and leaders of organizations like bazaar or ...
who commanded the latter refused to obey their pasha, whom they considered a traitor, and announced that they would rather die in the ruins of their fortress than surrender.
However, as early as October 14, the corvette ''Oise'' had left for France, bearing son and aide-de-camp of General Maison, Captain of Staff Jean Baptiste Eugène, Viscount Maison, who carried dispatches to King
Charles X
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Loui ...
announcing the surrender of Navarino, Methoni, Koroni and Patras, and that only stronghold was still under the control of the Turks, the Castle of the Morea.
=Siege of the Castle of the Morea
=
The
Castle of the Morea
The Rio Castle ( el, κάστρο του Ρίου), historically known as the Castle of the Morea ( it, Castello de Morea) in opposition to its counterpart, the Castle of Rumelia at Antirrio, is located at the north tip of the Rio peninsula in A ...
(''Kastro Moreas'' or ''Kastelli'') was built by
Bayezid II
Bayezid II ( ota, بايزيد ثانى, Bāyezīd-i s̱ānī, 3 December 1447 – 26 May 1512, Turkish: ''II. Bayezid'') was the eldest son and successor of Mehmed II, ruling as Sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1481 to 1512. During his reign, B ...
in 1499. It is located beside the sea, 10 km north of Patras, near Rion, and next to the current Rio–Antirrio bridge. Opposite the Castle of Rumelia on the northern coast, it guarded the entry to the Gulf of Corinth, which was nicknamed the "Little Dardanelles".
General Schneider negotiated with the aghas, who persisted in their refusal to surrender and even shot the general. A siege against the fortress was begun and fourteen marine and field guns, placed a little over 400 meters in front of it, reduced the artillery of the besieged to silence.A. Hugo, ''France militaire'', vol. 5, p. 319 In Navarino, General Maison commanded General Durrieu and Admiral de Rigny to have all the artillery and sappers embark in the ships anchored in the bay. On 20 October he also sent by land General Higonet, accompanied by two infantry regiments and by the 3rd Light Cavalry Regiment of the ''Chasseurs''. These reinforcements arrived on the evening of 26 October after an intensive week of marching with their pace set by the rhythm of the drums. New batteries nicknamed for breaching (''de brèche'') were installed. These received the names "Charles X" (King of France), "George IV" (King of the United Kingdom; this attention was greeted by the British), "Duke of Angoulême" (son of the king and Dauphin of France), "Duke of Bordeaux" (grandson of the king, and future count of Chambord) and "La Marine". A part of the French fleet, including the '' Breslaw'' and the '' Conquérant'', and the British under Admiral Edmund Lyons came to add their cannons. Some parts of the French and British batteries were even mixed and manipulated by gunners from both nations. The Russian fleet could not take part in the siege, being stationed in Malta, but Admiral
Lodewijk van Heiden
Lodewijk Sigismund Vincent Gustaaf Reichsgraf van Heiden (german: Ludwig Sigismund Vinzent Gustav Reichsgraf van Heyden, russian: Ло́ггин Петро́вич Ге́йден, transliterated Russian name: ''Loggin Petrovich Geyden''; 6 Septemb ...
had long since offered to be at the disposal of General Maison.
On 30 October, early in the morning, twenty-five heavy gun batteries (including six field pieces, four howitzers, several mortars and an English bombard) opened fire. Within four hours, a large breach was opened in the ramparts. Then, an emissary came out with a white flag to negotiate the terms of the fort's surrender. General Maison replied that the terms had been negotiated at the beginning of the month at Patras. He added that he did not trust a group of besieged men who had not respected a first agreement to respect a second one. He gave the garrison half an hour to evacuate the fort, without arms or baggage. The aghas surrendered, but the fortress' resistance had cost 25 men of the French expedition killed or wounded.
Military results of the expedition
On 5 November 1828, the last Turks and Egyptians had definitely left Morea. 2,500 men and their families were placed aboard French vessels headed for Smyrna. Therefore 26-27,000 men in total were forced to leave the country and the strongholds in a few days. The capture of the Morea strongholds by the French expeditionary force had only required a month:
Our operations were successful in all aspects: we do not find military glory there, without any doubt; but the object for which we have come, the liberation of Greece, will have been more successful and prompt; Morea will have been purged of its enemies. — Lieutenant-General Nicolas-Joseph Maison
Poros
Poros ( el, Πόρος) is a small Greek island-pair in the southern part of the Saronic Gulf, about south from the port of Piraeus and separated from the Peloponnese by a wide sea channel, with the town of Galatas on the mainland across the s ...
in September 1828 and invited Constantinople to send a diplomat there so as to conduct negotiations over the status of Greece. Because the Porte persisted in refusing to participate in conferences, General Maison explicitly suggested Greek Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias (on 5 October) pursuing military operations and extending them to
Attica
Attica ( el, Αττική, Ancient Greek ''Attikḗ'' or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the city of Athens, the capital of Greece and its countryside. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Se ...
and Euboea. France supported this project and had for that initially given instructions to General Maison on 27 August 1828.Despina Themeli-Katifori, ''Το Γαλλικό Ενδιαφέρον για την Ελλάδα στην Περίοδο του Καποδίστρια 1828-1831'' (''French interest in Greece during the Capodistrian period 1828-1831''), Athens, ed. Epikairotita, 1985). Soult de Dalmatie ''La Grèce après la campagne de Morée'' Revue Des Deux Mondes (1829-1971), 1/2, first series, 7-87, 1831. But the British Prime Minister, the Duke of Wellington, opposed this plan (he wanted the new Greek state to be limited only to Peloponnese), thus it was left to the Greeks to drive out the Ottomans from these territories, with the understanding that the French army would only intervene if the Greeks found themselves in trouble.Brunet de Presle, Alexandre Blanchet, p. 556.
The Ottoman Empire could no longer depend on Egyptian troops to hold Greece. The strategic situation now resembled that existing before 1825 and the landing of Ibrahim Pasha. Then, the Greek insurgents had triumphed on all fronts. After the Morea military expedition, the regular troops of the recently established
Hellenic Armed Forces
The Hellenic Armed Forces ( el, Eλληνικές Ένοπλες Δυνάμεις, Ellinikés Énoples Dynámis) are the military forces of Greece. They consist of the Hellenic Army, the Hellenic Navy, and the Hellenic Air Force.
The civilian ...
, only had to face the Turkish troops in
Central Greece
Continental Greece ( el, Στερεά Ελλάδα, Stereá Elláda; formerly , ''Chérsos Ellás''), colloquially known as Roúmeli (Ρούμελη), is a traditional geographic region of Greece. In English, the area is usually called Central ...
. Livadeia, gateway to Boeotia, was conquered at the beginning of November 1828 by the commander of the Army of Eastern Greece,
Demetrios Ypsilantis
Demetrios Ypsilantis (alternatively spelled Demetrius Ypsilanti; el, Δημήτριος Υψηλάντης, ; ro, Dumitru Ipsilanti; 1793August 16, 1832) was a Greek army officer who served in both the Hellenic Army and the Imperial Russian Ar ...
. A counterattack by Mahmud Pasha from Euboea was repulsed in January 1829. The commander of the Army of Western Greece,
Augustinos Kapodistrias
Count Augustinos Ioannis Maria Kapodistrias ( el, Αυγουστίνος Ιωάννης Μαρία Καποδίστριας, 1778–1857) was a Greek soldier and politician. He was born in Corfu.Naupaktos in April 1829 and the symbolic town of Messolonghi in May 1829. Ypsilantis recaptured Thebes on 21 May 1829 and defeated 7,000 Ottomans at the
Battle of Petra
The Battle of Petra was the final battle fought in the Greek War of Independence.
Background
By the summer of 1829, the Peloponnese, parts of Central Greece and several islands had been liberated by Greek revolutionary forces. A peace treaty be ...
(a narrow passage in
Boeotia
Boeotia ( ), sometimes Latinized as Boiotia or Beotia ( el, Βοιωτία; modern: ; ancient: ), formerly known as Cadmeis, is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Central Greece. Its capital is Livadeia, and it ...
between Thebes and Livadeia) on 12 September 1829. This battle was significant as it was the first time the Greeks had fought victoriously on the field of battle as a regular army. The battle of Petra was the last of the Greek War of Independence.
However, it took the military victory of Russia in the Russo-Turkish War of 1828–29 and the Treaty of Adrianople, which was then ratified by the Treaty of Constantinople in July 1832, before the independence of Greece was recognized and guaranteed by the Great Powers. This Treaty of Constantinople thus marked the end of the Greek War of Independence. The territory of the new Kingdom of Greece, however, only extended over the regions liberated by the French and Greek troops: the Peloponnese, some islands and central Greece (the northern land border of the Kingdom was drawn along a line joining the cities of Arta and Volos).
French in the Peloponnese
The troops of the Morea Expedition, despite their disappointment at not being able to pursue their objective to liberate Greece, were gradually evacuated from January 1829 (General Higonet and General Sébastiani). Jacques Mangeart, Dr. Gaspard Roux and the brigade in which Eugène Cavaignac was serving embarked in the early days of April 1829. General Maison, following his promotion to Marshal of France on 22 February 1829 and General Durrieu, following his promotion to divisional general, did not leave until 22 May 1829;They left after receiving from Greek governor Ioannis Kapodistrias a last and brilliant homage in the name of the Greek nation: they were offered the swords of
Kostas Botsaris
Kostas (Kitsos) Botsaris ( el, Κώστας (Κίτσος) Μπότσαρης, it, Costa Bozzari, c. 1792–1853), also known as Constantine Botzaris, was a Greek general and senator. He was also a captain and a hero of the War of Greek Indepen ...
and Georgios Karaiskakis, famous warriors of the Greek revolution, who died while fighting the Turks (in Alexandre Duheaume, ''Souvenirs de la Morée, pour servir à l'histoire de l'expédition française en 1828-1829,'' Anselin, Paris, 1833). Captain Duheaume left on 4 August 1829.''''
Only a single brigade, so-called "of occupation", of 5,000 men (composed of the 27th, 42nd, 54th and 58th Line Infantry Regiments stationed in Navarino, Methoni and Patras) remained in the Peloponnese under the command of General Virgile Schneider. Fresh troops were sent from France to relieve the soldiers stationed in Greece; the 57th Line Infantry Regiment landed at Navarino on 25 July 1830. The French troops, first commanded by General Maison (1828–1829), then by General Schneider (1829–1831) and finally by General Guéhéneuc (1831–1833), did not remain idle during these nearly five years.Pigi P. Kalogerakou, ''The contribution of the French expeditionary corpse to the restoration of the fortresses and the cities of Messinia'' ( Η συμβολή του Γαλλικού εκστρατευτικού σώματος στην αποκατάσταση των φρουρίων και των πόλεων της Μεσσηνίας '', in Οι πολιτικοστρατιωτικές σχέσεις Ελλάδας - Γαλλίας (19ος - 20ός αι.), Hellenic Army History Directorate, 13-41, Athens, 2011. Jacques Louis Lacour (Military Sub-Intendant in the Occupation Brigade), ''Excursions en Grèce pendant l'occupation de la Morée par l'armée française en 1832-33'', Arthur Bertrand, Paris, 1834
Fortifications were raised (like those at Methoni or Navarino),"The city of Navarino (...) was handed over in 1829 to the French, whose army occupies it today. Part of the garrison is working to re-establish the citadel and the fortifications that surround it", in Abel Blouet, ''Expédition de Morée. Section des Beaux-Arts.'', vol. 1, p. 2.These fortifications Navarino.html" ;"title="f the fortress of Navarino">f the fortress of Navarino not long ago, shaken, opened on all sides, and not even leaving to the one who would have wanted to defend them the honor of a beautiful despair, have been restored and strengthened first by us; a few months later, as great works were about to be finished, when a lightning from the sky came to overthrow them from top to bottom. The explosion of the gunpowder magazine on the night of 9 November 1829cost the lives of fifty of our comrades-in-arms, and over a hundred have been horribly mutilated. in Jacques Louis Lacour, ''Excursions en Grèce pendant l'occupation de la Morée par l'armée française en 1832-33'', Arthur Bertrand, Paris, 1834 barracks were built (the "Maison's building" in Navarino's fortress, which houses nowadays th new archaeological museum of Pylos , bridges were constructed (such as those over the Pamissos River between Navarino and Kalamata), the road Navarino–Methoni was built (the first road of independent Greece, which is still used today), hospitals (in Navarino, Modon and Patras) and health commissions were established for the Greek population (as during the plague epidemic in the mountainous villages of Kalavryta and Vrachni in December 1828, which was contained by the General Higonet). Finally, many improvements were made to the Peloponnesian cities (schools, postal services, printing companies, bridges, squares, fountains, gardens, etc.).In 1833, Jacques Louis Lacour, a military sub-intendant in the brigade of occupation wrote: "Ibrahim-Pasha (...) would admire no less, if he returned today to Navarino, the talents and the activity of our military engineering, by seeing 'an almost French town' unfolded in a picturesque amphitheater around the roadstead where he had left only an old hovel soon abandoned by the customs. This city, at least five years old 828-33 has no less than two to three hundred houses of rather elegant construction, most of them multi-storey; its streets are neatly maintained; there are many shops in the European style; a well paved place, serving as a purse and promenade; a monumental fountain in the middle; rich stores, without counter ladies, it is true (men from Orient would not care); a military hospital built on the sea shore, whose only view is already a subject of rest and recreation..." in Jacques Louis Lacour, ''Excursions en Grèce pendant l'occupation de la Morée par l'armée française en 1832-33'', Arthur Bertrand, Paris, 1834 The
military engineering
Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...
commander of the Morea expedition, Lieutenant-Colonel Joseph-Victor Audoy, was commissioned by the Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias to design the first urban framework plan of the country's modern history.In the Archives of the Greek Ministry for the Environment, Physical Planning and Public Works are 2 original copies of Methoni's urban plan (signed by Ioannis Kapodistrias, one of which bears a bottom note from Audoy: "''Designed and drawn by me, lieutenant of the military engineering, Modon, 4 May 1829 - Signature - Audoy''") and a copy of Pylos's urban plan (signed by Kapodistrias on 15 January 1831). These urban plans carry respectively the Numbers 1 and 2 of the Archives of the Ministry. Audoy built from the spring of 1829 the new cities of Modon (today Methoni) and Navarino (today Pylos) outside the walls of the fortresses, on the model of the
bastide
Bastides are fortified new towns built in medieval Languedoc, Gascony, Aquitaine, England and Wales during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, although some authorities count Mont-de-Marsan and Montauban, which was founded in 1144, as ...
s of Southwest France (from where he originated) and of the cities of the Ionian Islands (which share common features, such as a central geometrical square bordered by covered galleries built with a succession of contiguous
arch
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vault ...
es, each supported by a
colonnade
In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...
Corfu
Corfu (, ) or Kerkyra ( el, Κέρκυρα, Kérkyra, , ; ; la, Corcyra.) is a Greek islands, Greek island in the Ionian Sea, of the Ionian Islands, and, including its small satellite islands, forms the margin of the northwestern frontier of G ...
). He also built, between December 1829 and February 1830, the famous ''Capodistrian School of Mutual Education'' (the
monitorial system The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education that was imposed into the areas of expansion. ...
) of Methoni.Antonis K. Tisrigos, ''The Capodistrian School of Methoni'' (''Το καποδιστριακό Σχολείο της Μεθώνης, 1829-2016''), preface by Professor Petros Themelis, Private Edition, Athens, 2017. All these cities quickly repopulated and returned to their pre-war activity. The example of the rapid modernization of Patras, whose plans had just been drawn by the Captains of the French expedition
Stamatis Voulgaris
Stamatis Voulgaris or Stamati Bulgari ( el, Σταμάτης Βούλγαρης), was a painter, an architect and the first urban planner of modern Greece. He was born in Lefkimmi in the island of Corfu, Venetian Ionian Islands in 1774, and died ...
and Auguste-Théodore Garnot, is described at length in the ''Souvenirs'' of Jacques Mangeart, who came to the city with the Philhellene and Lieutenant-Colonel Maxime Raybaud to establish a printing company and found the Franco-Greek newspaper "'' Le Courrier d'Orient''" in 1829.
The Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias, when he had come to Paris in October 1827 just before his arrival in Greece, asked the French government (and in particular his friend and employee of the Ministry of War, Count Nicolas de Loverdo) for advisers and French army officers to organise the army of the new Greek state. Consequently, on the recommendation of the French Ministry of War, the Captains of the General Staff
Stamatis Voulgaris
Stamatis Voulgaris or Stamati Bulgari ( el, Σταμάτης Βούλγαρης), was a painter, an architect and the first urban planner of modern Greece. He was born in Lefkimmi in the island of Corfu, Venetian Ionian Islands in 1774, and died ...
(a French officer of Greek origin and friend of Kapodistrias from childhood), of the military engineering Auguste-Théodore Garnot, of the artillery Jean-Henri-Pierre-Augustin Pauzié-Banne and of the topographic service Pierre Peytier, were sent to Greece in 1828, a few months before the arrival of the Morea military expedition, to which they were attached, in order to train young Greek military engineers. Captains Voulgaris and Garnot designed the urban plans of several Greek cities: Tripolitza, Corinth (which Garnot continued alone),
Nafplio
Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in th ...
(Voulgaris reworked its urban plan and that of the refugee district ''Pronia'') and Patras. Garnot was also commissioned by Kapodistrias to found the first
military engineering
Military engineering is loosely defined as the art, science, and practice of designing and building military works and maintaining lines of military transport and military communications. Military engineers are also responsible for logistics b ...
corps in 1828, called the Corps of Fortification and Architecture Officers, whose mission was to build, maintain and improve fortifications, military and civilian buildings, bridges, roads and other constructions. The Captain of artillery Pauzié was responsible for founding the School of Artillery and then the Hellenic Central Military Academy, commonly known as the "Evelpidon School" in 1828,By the decree 8683 of 12 January 1829, signed by Greek Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias and by Henri Pauzié (''Διάταγμα Περί Οργανισμού Στρατιωτικής Κεντρικής Σχολής''). on the model of the French École Polytechnique. Finally, the map of the new Greek state was established by the Captain and engineer-geographer Pierre Peytier in 1832. At the same time, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Morea Expedition, Colonel
Camille Alphonse Trézel
Camille Alphonse Trézel (5 January 1780, in Paris – 11 April 1860, in Paris) was a French général de division, Minister for War and peer of France during the July Monarchy. He was the assistant chief of the general staff on the Morea expedit ...
was promoted by Ioannis Kapodistrias, General and Commander of the regular army in 1829. Composed at that time of 2,688 men, General Trézel organized it "à la française",Anastasia Tsagkaraki, Les philhellènes français dans la lutte pour l’indépendance grecque (1821-1831) ', Revue Historique des Armées, 2nd trimester 2016. both for its administration and for its jurisdiction, for the training and for the advancement of the soldiers, and even for its uniforms which were the same than those of the French. In November 1829, General Trézel was replaced by General Gérard, who remained Commander of the regular Army until 1831. Finally, Governor Kapodistrias also commissioned in 1829 the geologist of the expedition Pierre Théodore Virlet d'Aoust to assess the possibility of digging a
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...
on the Isthmus of Corinth. Thus, from the first years of its independence, Greece established lasting military cooperation with France, who is still considered today as its traditional strategic ally.
To all these achievements made by the French military troops, the scientific work realised by the scientific commission of the Morea between the months of March and December 1829 should be added as well. The French troops definitively withdrew from Greece in August 1833, shortly after the arrival of King Otto of Greece and the Bavarian Auxiliary Corps, in the previous January. They were then replaced by the corps of the Royal Army composed of 3,500
Bavaria
Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...
n soldiers and officers.
Human cost of the expedition
Despite the brevity of the military operations and the small number of battles, the human cost of the French expedition was extremely heavy: between 1 September 1828 and 1 April 1829, the Chief Medical Officer of the expeditionary corps, Dr. Gaspard Roux, officially reported 4,766 illnesses and 1,000 deaths915 dead reported by Dr. Roux in the hospitals of Navarino, Methoni,
Koroni
Koroni or Corone ( el, Κορώνη) is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is a municipal unit. Known as ''Corone' ...
and Patras. He estimated that this number actually amounted to 1,000, taking into account the deaths of patients and convalescents repatriated to France in 1829. Roux thus estimated the mortality rate at about 18 percent. (In Dr. Gaspard Roux, the chief medical officer of the expedition), Histoire médicale de l'armée française en Morée, pendant la campagne de 1828 ', Méquignon l'aîné père, Paris, 1829. (numbers confirmed by Doctor Charles-Joseph Bastide, Surgeon-Major of the 16th Line Infantry Regiment).
Thus, almost a third of French troops were affected by fevers,
diarrhea
Diarrhea, also spelled diarrhoea, is the condition of having at least three loose, liquid, or watery bowel movements each day. It often lasts for a few days and can result in dehydration due to fluid loss. Signs of dehydration often begin wi ...
and
dysentery
Dysentery (UK pronunciation: , US: ), historically known as the bloody flux, is a type of gastroenteritis that results in bloody diarrhea. Other symptoms may include fever, abdominal pain, and a feeling of incomplete defecation. Complications ...
, which had been mostly contracted between October and December 1828 in the camps established within the marshy plains of Petalidi, in the mouth of the river ''Djalova'' (in Navarino Bay) or in Patras. This epidemic of fever, characterized by a large majority of tertian fevers (occurring every two days), periodic, with a high rate of relapse, dazzling and accompanied by shivering, jaundice, convulsions, headache and neurological and digestive disorders, certainly corresponds to malaria (word that originates from medieval
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional It ...
: ''mala aria''—" bad air"; the disease was formerly called ''ague'' or ''marsh fever'' due to its association with swamps and marshland) which was endemic to the region at that time (it was definitively eradicated in Greece in 1974). The epidemic began during the warm season, on 20 September 1828, marked its peak on 20 October (15 November in Patras), then subsided during the month of November, to completely stop in December 1828.
Although Doctor Roux recognized the main and deleterious influence of swamps in the spread of the disease, it was not until 1880 that its primary cause, the '' Plasmodium'' parasite (a single-celled microorganism), was discovered by the
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (18 June 1845 – 18 May 1922) was a French physician who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1907 for his discoveries of parasitic protozoans as causative agents of infectious diseases such as malaria ...
—a French army doctor working in the military hospital of Constantine in
— who observed parasites inside the red blood cells of infected people for the first time ( Nobel Prize in 1907). Also, the evidence that female ''
Anopheles
''Anopheles'' () is a genus of mosquito first described and named by J. W. Meigen in 1818. About 460 species are recognised; while over 100 can transmit human malaria, only 30–40 commonly transmit parasites of the genus ''Plasmodium'', which c ...
'' mosquitoes, which neither Doctor Roux nor Doctor Bastide ever mention, are the vectors of malaria, came only in 1897 by the Scottish physician
Sir Ronald Ross
Sir Ronald Ross (13 May 1857 – 16 September 1932) was a British medical doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on the transmission of malaria, becoming the first British Nobel laureate, and the f ...
( Nobel Prize in 1902).
The doctors attributed the disease mainly to the proximity of the focal point of infection in lowlands and marshy places and to the harshness of the transitions in temperatures between day and night, and to a lesser extent, to the intensity of the multiple and arduous works, as well as in the excessive consumption of salted meat, of spirits, and of the muddy and brackish water of the region. The cooler weather of winter, the moving of the men into the fortresses's barracks, the immediate enforcement of strict hygiene and sanitation measures, the arrival of drugs from France, as well as the establishment of three military hospitals in Navarino, Methoni and Patras significantly reduced this loss of life. It should also be noted that the use by Doctor Roux of
antipyretic
An antipyretic (, from ''anti-'' 'against' and ' 'feverish') is a substance that reduces fever. Antipyretics cause the hypothalamus to override a prostaglandin-induced increase in temperature. The body then works to lower the temperature, which r ...
febrifuge
An antipyretic (, from ''anti-'' 'against' and ' 'feverish') is a substance that reduces fever. Antipyretics cause the hypothalamus to override a prostaglandin-induced increase in temperature. The body then works to lower the temperature, which r ...
s such as
cinchona
''Cinchona'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae containing at least 23 species of trees and shrubs. All are native to the tropical Andean forests of western South America. A few species are reportedly nat ...
powder and quinine, purified for the first time only 8 years before, in 1820, by
Pierre Joseph Pelletier
Pierre-Joseph Pelletier (, , ; 22 March 1788 – 19 July 1842) was a French chemist and pharmacist who did notable research on vegetable alkaloids, and was the co-discoverer with Joseph Bienaimé Caventou of quinine, caffeine, and strychnine. ...
and Joseph Bienaimé Caventou, resulted in most convincing therapeutic results.
However, the total number of deaths would increase significantly thereafter until the expedition's departure in 1833, especially following some suicides, duels, a few cases of "narcotism" following an overuse of alcoholic liquors, with the explosion of a gunpowder magazine within the fort of Navarino, which cost the lives of fifty soldiers on 19 November 1829, and following the Argos affair on January 16, 1833, which resulted in the death of three French soldiers. The scientific mission will also be strongly affected by malaria fever during the next summer in 1829. The total number of deaths in the Morea expedition is generally estimated, according to testimonies, at around 1,500.Edgar Quinet (historian, member of the scientific commission), ''De la Grèce moderne, et de ses rapports avec l’antiquité,'' F.-G. Levrault, Paris, 1830.''
Subsequently, memorials commemorating these fallen French soldiers were erected by the Greek and French states on the islet of Sphacteria in Navarino's bay (monument erected in May 1890) and in the cities of
Gialova
Gialova (Greek: Γιάλοβα) is a village on Navarino Bay in the municipality of Pylos-Nestor in the regional unit of Messenia in the south-west Peloponnese, Greece, about six kilometres north of Pylos. The name derives from Greek γιαλός ...
(monument erected in October 2007 on the exact site of the ''camp of Djalova''), of Kalamata (in the church of Saint Nicholas Flarios) and of
Nafplio
Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in th ...
(''monument to the Philhellenes'' erected in 1903), where they can still be seen today.
Scientific expedition
Establishment of the scientific mission
The Morea expedition was the second of the great military-scientific expeditions led by France in the first half of the 19th century. The first, used as a benchmark, had been that of Egypt, starting in 1798 (''
Commission des sciences et des arts
The Commission des Sciences et des Arts (''Commission of the Sciences and Arts'') was a French scientific and artistic institute. Established on 16 March 1798, it consisted of 167 members, of which all but 16 joined Napoleon Bonaparte's conquest ...
from 1839 ('' Commission d'exploration scientifique d'Algérie''). All three took place at the initiative of the French government and were placed under the guidance of a particular ministry (Foreign relations for Egypt, Interior for Morea and War for Algeria). The great scientific institutions were recruiting scholars (both civilians and from the military) and were specifying their missions, but ''in situ'' work was done in close cooperation with the army. The Commission of Sciences and Arts during Napoleon’s campaign in Egypt, and especially the publications that followed, had become a model. Since Greece was the other important region of antiquity considered the origin of
Western civilisation
Leonardo da Vinci's ''Vitruvian Man''. Based on the correlations of ideal Body proportions">human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise ''De architectura''.
image:Plato Pio-Cle ...
(one of the
philhellenes
Philhellenism ("the love of Greek culture") was an intellectual movement prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron and Charles Nicolas Fabvier to advocate for Greek ...
' principal arguments), it was decided, as mentioned by
Abel Blouet
Guillaume-Abel Blouet (6 October 1795 – 7 May 1853) was a French architect who specialised in prison design.
Biography
Blouet was born at Passy. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1821 at the École des Beaux-Arts, entitling him to five years' ...
, to:
...take advantage of the presence of our soldiers who were occupying Morea to send a scholarly commission. It did not have to equal that attached to the glory of Napoleon ��It did however need to render eminent services to the arts and sciences.
Charles X
Charles X (born Charles Philippe, Count of Artois; 9 October 1757 – 6 November 1836) was King of France from 16 September 1824 until 2 August 1830. An uncle of the uncrowned Louis XVII and younger brother to reigning kings Louis XVI and Loui ...
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (15 April 177219 June 1844) was a French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition". He was a colleague of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and expanded and defended Lamarck's evolutionary theories ...
Desiré-Raoul Rochette
Desiré-Raoul Rochette (March 6, 1790 – July 3, 1854), was a French archaeologist.
Born at Saint-Amand in the department of Cher, Raoul Rochette received his education at Bourges. In 1810, he obtained a chair of grammar in the Lyceum Louis-le- ...
Bory de Saint-Vincent
Jean-Baptiste Geneviève Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist, officer and politician. He was born on 6 July 1778 in Agen (Lot-et-Garonne) and died on 22 December 1846 in Paris. Biologist and geographer, he was particularly in ...
was a childhood friend of
Martignac
Jean-Baptiste Sylvère Gay, 1st Viscount of Martignac (20 June 1778 3 April 1832) was a moderate royalist French statesman during the Bourbon Restoration 1814–30 under King Charles X.
Biography
Martignac was born in Bordeaux, France. In 179 ...
Messrs. De Martignac and Siméon had asked me expressly not to restrict my observations to Flies and Herbs, but to extend them to places and to men
The expedition, composed of nineteen scientists, was divided into three sections ( Physical Sciences,
Archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscape ...
,
Architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (1780-1846) was a French illustrator and lithographer, also an archaeologist and curator at the Louvre museum.
Life
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois studied fine arts and painting in the ateliers of painters Antoine-Jean Gros ...
(Archaeology section) and
Guillaume-Abel Blouet
Guillaume-Abel Blouet (6 October 1795 – 7 May 1853) was a French architect who specialised in prison design.
Biography
Blouet was born at Passy. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1821 at the École des Beaux-Arts, entitling him to five years' ...
(Architecture and Sculpture section). The painter Amaury-Duval gave portraits of these three directors in his '' Souvenirs (1829-1830)'' written in 1885." Mr. Dubois, head of the Archaeology section, in which I was a designer, had been a student of David. I would readily believe that his dispositions for painting were not great enough for him to continue to follow this career; the fact remains that he renounced it and became, I do not know by what circumstances, friend and assistant of the great Champollion. He had exercised his eye in many expertises, had probably gleaned a little to the right and to the left, especially in the conversation of his master, who made him obtain, at the Louvre Museum, a fairly important place. Tall, fat, lively, cheerful, an appearance of Joseph Prudhomme, with whom gold glasses gave him even more resemblance. His repertoire of workshop charges, although varied, was not inexhaustible, however; the jokes and the stories he told in a funny way, repeated themselves a little; some dated from the time of the
Empire
An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...
, but I did not know them, and they amused me. He was married and lived in Paris, with his wife and young daughter, in a modest but comfortable interior; during our excursion, I often heard him regret this family life, without ever having wanted to go deeper into what he regretted the most, because it was especially during our meals that he complained. What I have to add is that at first glance he was very attractive, and that he made a lot of expenses, especially for the latest arrivals'' ..'The brilliant mind of Mr. Bory Saint-Vincent could not get me, as young as I was, to overcome his arrogance and his aplomb, and I got used with difficulty to this activity, to this perpetual movement. His clothing, in the ceremonies or in the visits that we were going to pay to the authorities, was of a grotesque completion. He had combined in a very bizarre mixture the costume of a colonel and that of a member of the Institute. But he was not aware, or pretended not to notice, the amazement he caused everywhere. From the first days, he let his ambition, which he did not stop having during the trip, to pass for the supreme head of the commission, and I quickly noticed the coldness that Mr. Blouet and Mr. Dubois testified to him when he let his pretensions appear too much. As an indifferent spectator of this little antagonism, I could easily foresee how much the results of the expedition would suffer from that. I am probably mistaken; but I find difficult to understand a commission of this nature without a single chief, who directs the whole and who assumes all the responsibility. There were at our head three chiefs: they were already too many, and who were intended, and soon, to each pull their own side... It is true that there are many other circumstances for which I do admit only one master. Therefore, I repeat, I am probably wrong. Mr. Blouet, a talented architect, had the serious appearance of a hard worker. But the two most curious types of the commission were, without question, Edgar Quinet and Vietty, sculptor from Lyon... ", Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval, '' Souvenirs (1829-1830),'' Chapter III , Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885.
The members of the scientific expedition embarked on February 10, 1829 in
Toulon
Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...
aboard the frigate '' Cybèle'' (commanded by the frigate captain, de Robillard) and, after 21 days of a rather tumultuous crossing of the Mediterranean for the members of the expedition,"The beginning of the dinner, very well served, passed happily. We had known our officers for some time; but perhaps their cheerfulness came from the scene they were about to see. The wind, it seems, had risen at the end of the harbor f Toulon and the ship was rolling quite hard. The moment for soup passed regularly; but suddenly deep silence. My gaze fixed on a point from which nothing in the world could have detached them, my comrades paled visibly; you could see the sweat beading on their foreheads. One of them could not stand it any longer, rose hastily, and, in his flight, clashed with the beams of the very low ceiling; but nothing stopped him. A second followed him; soon the rout became general. The officers, who barely concealed their desire to laugh, all turned their eyes to my side and waited ..., but in vain! Alone, I did not move, devouring what I had on my plate, and my face as calm, as joyful as if I had been on the ground, sitting at a good table. All the officers, then, filling their glasses, began to scream three Hurray! and drank to the health of the young scientist. After dinner, I went up on deck, and saw the dreadful spectacle of all my inanimate companions ..These were for me impressions that my poor companions, almost always sick and often bedridden, could not experience.", Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval (painter, member of the scientific commission), '' Souvenirs (1829-1830),'' Chapter IV, Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885. they landed on March 3, 1829 at Navarino.'''' While in Egypt and Algeria, scientific work was done under the army's protection, in Morea, while scientific exploration had barely begun, the first troops already started embarking for France from the first days of April 1829.'''' The army merely provided logistical support: tents, stakes, tools, liquid containers, large pots and sacks; in a word, everything that could be found for us to use in the army's storehouses.
Shortly after the arrival of the scientific commission in Greece and its installation in its headquarters in
Modon The Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones ( ar, الهيئة السعودية للمدن الصناعية ومناطق التقنية), also known simply as MODON ( ar, مُدُن) is a government organization created by the Go ...
, the governor of the First Hellenic Republic Ioannis Kapodistrias came to meet its members on April 11, 1829. He already had the opportunity to meet on his way, between Argos and Tripolizza, Edgar Quinet who had then already parted from the rest of the commission and was heading to Argolida. The historian and future French politician presents on this occasion portraits of the president and his aides-de-camp, the heroes of Greek independence
Kolokotronis Kolokotronis (Greek: Κολοκοτρώνης) is a Greek surname. When used without any other context, it refers to the Greek warlord Theodoros Kolokotronis whose contribution to the Greek revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire, was determi ...
and
Nikitaras
Nikitaras ( el, Νικηταράς) was the nom de guerre of Nikitas Stamatelopoulos ( el, Νικήτας Σταματελόπουλος) (c. 17841849), a Greek revolutionary in the Greek War of Independence. Due to his fighting prowess, he was ...
, who all left strong impression on him. The president also met
Abel Blouet
Guillaume-Abel Blouet (6 October 1795 – 7 May 1853) was a French architect who specialised in prison design.
Biography
Blouet was born at Passy. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1821 at the École des Beaux-Arts, entitling him to five years' ...
a little further on his journey, in the vicinity of
Corone
Corone ( grc, Κορώνη, Korṓnē, crow) may refer to:
* Koroni, also spelled Corone, a town in Greece
* Corone (crow), a character in Greek mythology
See also
* Coronis (disambiguation)
{{disambig ...
.Abel Boulet ''Expedition scientifique de Morée ordonnée par le Gouvernement Français ; Architecture, Sculptures, Inscriptions et Vues du Péloponèse, des Cyclades et de l'Attique'' (Volume I, 1831) Abel Boulet, Amable Ravoisié, Achille Poirot, Félix Trézel et Frédéric de Gournay, Firmin Didot, Paris. A great dinner was organised at Modon, which brought together for the last time before the expeditionary force returned to France: President Kapodistrias, Marshal Maison, the Greek and French officers and principal chiefs (Kolokotronis, Nikitaras, Makriyannis, Kallergis, Fabvier, etc.), and all members of the scientific commission. Bory de Saint-Vincent introduced the members of his section to the president, then both had the opportunity to discuss at length questions of international diplomacy. They met again later in Argos, Nafplion and Aegina. The painter Amaury-Duval, also noted the special devotion of the Greek President to his project to develop schools of mutual education (the
monitorial system The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education that was imposed into the areas of expansion. ...
) in the country. In general, texts describing the multiple meetings between the members of the scientific commission and the Greek president invariably show reciprocal respect and mutual esteem.
File:Kapodistrias2.jpg, The Greek President Ioannis Kapodistrias (Athens National Museum)
File:De Vaudrimey - Theodoros Kolokotronis - Morea Expedition 1829.jpg,
Theodoros Kolokotronis
Theodoros Kolokotronis ( el, Θεόδωρος Κολοκοτρώνης; 3 April 1770 – 4 February 1843) was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) against the Ottoman Empire. Kolokotronis's gr ...
(by captain de Vaudrimey of the Morea expedition)
File:De Vaudrimey - Nikitas (Nikitaras) Stamatelopoulos - Morea Expedition 1829.jpg, Nikitas (Nikitaras) Stamatelopoulos (by captain de Vaudrimey of the Morea expedition)
File:Maison, Nicolas-Joseph.jpg, Nicolas-Joseph Maison, Marshal of France, commander of the military expedition of Morea (by Aloys Senefelder)
File:Bory Saint-Vincent 1778-1846.jpg, Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, director of the scientific expedition of Morea (by Ambroise Tardieu)
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (15 April 177219 June 1844) was a French naturalist who established the principle of "unity of composition". He was a colleague of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck and expanded and defended Lamarck's evolutionary theories ...
, included several sciences: on the one hand
botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
(
Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent
Jean-Baptiste Geneviève Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist, officer and politician. He was born on 6 July 1778 in Agen ( Lot-et-Garonne) and died on 22 December 1846 in Paris. Biologist and geographer, he was particularl ...
Gabriel Bibron
Gabriel Bibron (20 October 1805 – 27 March 1848) was a French zoologist and herpetologist. He was born in Paris. The son of an employee of the Museum national d'histoire naturelle, he had a good foundation in natural history and was h ...
Gérard Paul Deshayes
Gérard Paul Deshayes (; 13 May 1795 – 9 June 1875) was a French geologist and conchologist.
Career
He was born in Nancy, his father at that time being professor of experimental physics in the École Centrale of the département Meurthe
He ...
).
Geography and Geology
One of the first objectives fixed by the French government had been to draw precise maps of the Peloponnese, with a scientific purpose, but also for economic and military reasons. The Minister of War, the Vicomte de Caux, had written to General Maison on January 6, 1829: All the maps of Greece are very imperfect and were drawn up based on more or less inaccurate templates; it is thus essential to fix them. Not only will geography be enriched by this research, but we will in the process support France's commercial interests by making her relations easier, and it will above all be useful for our ground and naval forces, who may find themselves involved in this part of Europe. The only maps available at the time were those made by
Jean-Denis Barbié du Bocage Jean-Denis is a masculine given name, and may refer to:
* Jean-Denis Bredin
Jean-Denis Bredin (born Jean-Denis Hirsch: 17 May 1929 – 1 September 2021) was a French attorney and founding partner of the firm Bredin Prat. He was widely admire ...
(1808, in 1:500,000 scale), whose map was relatively imperfect, and that of Pierre Lapie (1826, in 1:400,000 scale), which was more exact for a detailed layout and was used by the members of the expedition.Michel Sivignon, Université Paris X - Nanterre, Les enseignements de la carte de Grèce à l’échelle de 1/200.000 (publiée en 1852) ' (Pergamos - Digital Library of the University of Athens (UoA)). Communication presented in the seminar of Gythion-Areopolis Lakonias ''Voyageurs et expéditions scientifiques: témoignages sur l'espace et la société de Mani'', 4-7 nov 1993 and published in ''Mani. Témoignages sur l’espace et la société. Voyageurs et expéditions scientifiques (15°-19° siècle)'', Athens, Institut d’Études Néo-helléniques, 1996, p. 435-445.Evangelos Livieratos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, ', website. E. Livieratos 2009, ''Cartographic adventures of Greece 1821-1919'', Athens: MIET/ELIA; p. 287, ()
Captain Pierre Peytier, of the
topographic
Topography is the study of the forms and features of land surfaces. The topography of an area may refer to the land forms and features themselves, or a description or depiction in maps.
Topography is a field of geoscience and planetary scie ...
service in the French army, had already been invited to Greece by Governor Ioannis Kapodistrias when the latter had come to Paris in October 1827 to ask the French government for advisers and French army officers to organise the army of the new Greek state. Kapodistrias also requested the fixing of the map of Greece. Consequently, on the recommendation of the French Ministry of War, Peytier and three other officers were sent to Greece in May 1828, four months before the Morea military expedition, to train young Greek topographical engineers (including the urban engineer
Stamatis Voulgaris
Stamatis Voulgaris or Stamati Bulgari ( el, Σταμάτης Βούλγαρης), was a painter, an architect and the first urban planner of modern Greece. He was born in Lefkimmi in the island of Corfu, Venetian Ionian Islands in 1774, and died ...
, a staff captain in the French army, but of Greek origin). Peytier himself was to draw the plans for the city of Corinth and the map of the Peloponnese. When the scientific expedition of the Morea landed at Navarino in the Peloponnese on March 3, 1829, Peytier was attached to it.
As soon as March, a base of 3,500 meters had been traced in the
Argolis
Argolis or Argolida ( el, Αργολίδα , ; , in ancient Greek and Katharevousa) is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of Peloponnese, situated in the eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula and part of the tri ...
, from one point at the ruins of Tiryns to a point at a ruined house in the village of
Aria
In music, an aria (Italian: ; plural: ''arie'' , or ''arias'' in common usage, diminutive form arietta , plural ariette, or in English simply air) is a self-contained piece for one voice, with or without instrumental or orchestral accompanime ...
. This was intended to serve as a point of departure in all the triangulation operations for topographic and geodetic readings in the Peloponnese. Peytier and Puillon-Boblaye proceeded to perform numerous verifications on the base and on the rulers used. The margin of error was thus reduced to 1 meter for every 15 kilometers. The longitude and
latitude
In geography, latitude is a coordinate that specifies the north–south position of a point on the surface of the Earth or another celestial body. Latitude is given as an angle that ranges from –90° at the south pole to 90° at the north pole ...
of the base point at Tiryns were read and checked, so that again the margin of error was reduced as far as possible to an estimated 0.2
seconds
The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds each ...
. One hundred thirty four geodetic stations were set up on the peninsula's mountains, as well as on Aegina, Hydra and Nafplion. Equilateral triangles whose sides measured about 20 km were drawn, while the angles were measured with Gambey's
theodolite
A theodolite () is a precision optical instrument for measuring angles between designated visible points in the horizontal and vertical planes. The traditional use has been for land surveying, but it is also used extensively for building and ...
s. However, after the departure of the scientific mission from Greece, and although he fell ill with fever five times, Peytier remained there alone until 31 July 1831 to complete the trigonometric, topographic and statistical work for the establishment of the map of the Morea.
The ''Map of 1832'', very precisely drawn at a 1:200,000 scale on 6 sheets (plus two sheets depicting some of the islands of the Cyclades), was the first map of the Greek territory ever made according to scientifically and geodetic principles.
After the assassination of Kapodistrias in October 1831, Peytier's activity was almost completely hampered by the civil war which tore the country apart. King Otto I of Greece, who arrived in January 1833, requested of France that the topographic brigade be responsible for surveying the map of the whole kingdom. Peytier returned to Greece on 28 March 1833 and remained there until March 1836 to direct most of the work for the preparation of the complete map. Some topographic engineers remained until 1849 under the direction of Captain Soitoux for additional reconnaissance. This '' Map of 1852'', also in 1:200,000 scale, was definitively published under Peytier's direction in 1852. Until the publication by the Geographical Service of the Hellenic Army after 1945 of the current map in 1:50,000 scale, this map from 1852 remained the only one which covered the entire territory of Greece. The French geographer and Greek specialist, Michel Sivignion indicates that the map depicts, for the first time, an exact rendering of the topography, of the layout of the rivers, of the height of the mountains, and also of the distribution of inhabited places and of the size of their populations. Beyond this technical aspect, it marks the political territory of independent Greece, its official representation, and its being taken possession of by the authorities of the territory, the limits of which are fixed.
Peytier also left an album which he himself composed with his pencil drawings, sepias and watercolours depicting city views, monuments, costumes and inhabitants of Greece at the time. He used an artistic style that avoided idealization for the benefit of scientific fidelity and precision, which fully revealed the topographer that he was.
The Governor of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias also commissioned Pierre Théodore Virlet d'Aoust to assess the possibility of digging a
canal
Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface fl ...
on the isthmus of Corinth,Pierre Théodore Virlet d'Aoust, Percement de l'isthme de Corinthe ', p. 408-421, Bulletin de la Société de géographie, 1881, volume 2. to save ships the journey around the Peloponnese and the dangerous pass of the capes Maleas and Matapan (Tainaron) south of the peninsula. Virlet d'Aoust gave him an estimate of the project, which, without taking into account interest on its financing, was assessed to around 40 million
gold franc
The gold franc (currency code: XFO) was the unit of account for the Bank for International Settlements from 1930 until April 1, 2003. It was replaced with the special drawing right. It was originally based on the Franc Germinal, and remained a ...
s of the time. This expense, too considerable for the Hellenic government alone, led him to give up the initiation of the works. Although the project was never carried out, Virlet still oprovided the Greek government its potential route, which followed that established by the
Romans
Roman or Romans most often refers to:
* Rome, the capital city of Italy
* Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD
* Roman people, the people of ancient Rome
*''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
between ''Loutraki'' and ''Kalamaki'', and which was indicated on the ''Geological Map in 1:200,000 scale'' of the scientific expedition. It was not until 1893 that the
Corinth Canal
The Corinth Canal ( el, Διώρυγα της Κορίνθου, translit=Dhioryga tis Korinthou) is an artificial canal in Greece, that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea. It cuts through the ...
was finally opened.
Botany and Zoology
Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent
Jean-Baptiste Geneviève Marcellin Bory de Saint-Vincent was a French naturalist, officer and politician. He was born on 6 July 1778 in Agen ( Lot-et-Garonne) and died on 22 December 1846 in Paris. Biologist and geographer, he was particularl ...
led the Morea scientific expedition, and made detailed botanical observations. He gathered a multitude of specimens: ''Flore de Morée'' (1832) lists 1,550 plants, of which 33 were orchids and 91 were grasses (just 42 species had not yet been described); ''Nouvelle Flore du Péloponnèse et des Cyclades'' (1838) described 1,821 species. In Morea, Bory de Saint-Vincent limited himself to collecting only the plants. He proceeded to their classification, identification and description upon his return to the Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris. He was then helped, not by his collaborators from Greece, but by the eminent botanists of his time, Louis Athanase Chaubard, Jean-Baptiste Fauché and
Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart
Adolphe-Théodore Brongniart () FRS FRSE FGS (14 January 1801 – 18 February 1876) was a French botanist. He was the son of the geologist Alexandre Brongniart and grandson of the architect, Alexandre-Théodore Brongniart. Brongniart's pioneeri ...
. Similarly, the well-known naturalists Étienne and his son Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire helped him to write and edit the expedition's scientific works, under the supervision of Georges Cuvier at the institute. As the gathering process went along, they sent the plants, as well as birds and fish, to France.
In zoological matters, relatively few new species were described. However, the Morea expedition identified for the first time the species of jackal, ''Canis aureus'', or golden jackal, that populates the region. Although earlier travel narratives had mentioned its presence, these were not considered trustworthy. Moreover, the subspecies described by the Morea Expedition was endemic to the region: Bory de Saint-Vincent gave it the name of the Morea ('' Canis aureus moreoticus'') and brought back to the Museum of Natural History in Paris some pelts and a skull.
Bory was accompanied during his explorations of the Peloponnese by the
zoologists
This is a list of notable zoologists who have published names of new taxa under the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.
A
* Abe – Tokiharu Abe (1911–1996)
* Abeille de Perrin, Ab. – Elzéar Abeille de Perrin (1843–1910)
* ...
Gabriel Bibron, Sextius Delaunay and Antoine Vincent Pector, by the
entomologist
Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
Gaspard-Auguste Brullé, by the
conchologist
Conchology () is the study of mollusc shells. Conchology is one aspect of malacology, the study of molluscs; however, malacology is the study of molluscs as whole organisms, whereas conchology is confined to the study of their shells. It includ ...
, malacologist and geologist Gérard Paul Deshayes, by the
geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid, liquid, and gaseous matter that constitutes Earth and other terrestrial planets, as well as the processes that shape them. Geologists usually study geology, earth science, or geophysics, alth ...
s Pierre Théodore Virlet d’Aoust and Émile Puillon Boblaye, and by the
botanist
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
specialist of
cryptogam
A cryptogam (scientific name Cryptogamae) is a plant (in the wide sense of the word) or a plant-like organism that reproduces by spores, without flowers or seeds. The name ''Cryptogamae'' () means "hidden reproduction", referring to the fact ...
algae
Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from u ...
, Louis Despreaux Saint-Sauveur. The painter Prosper Baccuet, also accompanying Bory, made illustrations of the landscapes visited that were published in Bory's ''Relation de l'Expédition scientifique de Morée'' (1836) and ''Atlas'' (1835).
Desiré-Raoul Rochette
Desiré-Raoul Rochette (March 6, 1790 – July 3, 1854), was a French archaeologist.
Born at Saint-Amand in the department of Cher, Raoul Rochette received his education at Bourges. In 1810, he obtained a chair of grammar in the Lyceum Louis-le- ...
, was composed of the archaeologists
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (1780-1846) was a French illustrator and lithographer, also an archaeologist and curator at the Louvre museum.
Life
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois studied fine arts and painting in the ateliers of painters Antoine-Jean Gros ...
(director) and
Charles Lenormant
Charles Lenormant (1 June 1802, Paris – 22 November 1859, Athens) was a French archaeologist.
Biography
After pursuing his studies at the Lycée Charlemagne and the Lycée Napoléon, he took up law, but a visit to Italy and Sicily (182 ...
Elis
Elis or Ilia ( el, Ηλεία, ''Ileia'') is a historic region in the western part of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It is administered as a regional unit of the modern region of Western Greece. Its capital is Pyrgos. Until 2011 it w ...
and Messinia) using descriptions in ancient literature. Its itinerary followed that of Pausanias the Periegete. The sites had to be precisely located by precise triangulation, then, with the help of the architectural section, the archaeology section had to make the plans (general and by building), to draw and cast the buildings and their decorations, and to start excavations to clear buildings and
antiquities
Antiquities are objects from antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures. Artifacts from earlier periods such as the Meso ...
. Byzantine monasteries had been added to the itinerary, and the section was tasked with attempting to buy some manuscripts from them.
The archaeology section, however, did not succeed in achieving the ambitious program originally set. Its members suffered from numerous diseases and fevers and began quarreling.
Charles Lenormant
Charles Lenormant (1 June 1802, Paris – 22 November 1859, Athens) was a French archaeologist.
Biography
After pursuing his studies at the Lycée Charlemagne and the Lycée Napoléon, he took up law, but a visit to Italy and Sicily (182 ...
, for instance, when he learned that he was under the orders of Dubois, or at least that he was going to go along with him, did not think he should accept this position with a man who was his subordinate at the Louvre (he was just returning from the Egyptian archaeological expedition organised by Jean-François Champollion in 1828); consequently he made the trip as an amateur and alone.Edgar Quinet, the prominent French historian, intellectual and politician, who did not care to be a subordinate nor for collaborating on a book—he already intended to publish one by himself—told Dubois that he did not have to count on him, and that he would go alone. Quinet visited
Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; el, Πειραιάς ; grc, Πειραιεύς ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens' city centre, along the east coast of the Saroni ...
on 21 April 1829, thence reaching Athens. He saw the Cyclades in May, starting with Syros. Being sick, he returned to France on 5 June, and his ''Grèce moderne et ses rapports avec l’Antiquité'' was published in September 1831. The sculptor and Hellenist
Jean-Baptiste Vietty
Jean-Baptiste Vietty, (14 December 1787 - 1842) was a French sculptor and archaeologist.
Born at Amplepuis in the département of the Rhône, the son of a decorative plasterworker of Italian origin, Vietty worked in the ateliers of the painte ...
from
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of th ...
, who belonged to the Architecture and Sculpture section), tolerating with difficulty his subordinate role in the expedition,"I wanted to excavate some tombs but the subordinate position in which I was placed in such an Expedition did not leave me, neither the time, nor the means to do it. I therefore postponed the study I had made of this so interesting part of the old story."
Jean-Baptiste Vietty
Jean-Baptiste Vietty, (14 December 1787 - 1842) was a French sculptor and archaeologist.
Born at Amplepuis in the département of the Rhône, the son of a decorative plasterworker of Italian origin, Vietty worked in the ateliers of the painte ...
Jean-Baptiste Vietty
Jean-Baptiste Vietty, (14 December 1787 - 1842) was a French sculptor and archaeologist.
Born at Amplepuis in the département of the Rhône, the son of a decorative plasterworker of Italian origin, Vietty worked in the ateliers of the painte ...
(p. 56, Chapter III): "Mr. Blouet, a talented architect, had the serious appearance of a hard worker. But the two most curious types of the commission were, without question, Edgar Quinet and Vietty, sculptor from Lyon. ..The sculptor, a sort of peasant of the Danube, for the form at least, was said to have a deep education: he knew Greek as much as a man from France; so he treated the inhabitants of the Morea like donkeys, because they did not understand the language of Homer: finally, more Hellenist than sculptor." and p. 103: "Did he intend to teach the language of Homer to modern Greeks? Perhaps, because we were told later that, willing to enter a closed city by force, he had addressed in Greek to the sentry a speech so little understood, especially with French pronunciation, that, to end it, we had driven to the police station. The fact remains that he left us, and that I never saw him again." Indeed, Vietty died soon after in France in 1842, in great poverty and without having published a single page of her research in the Morea (according to the testimony of geologist Virlet d'Aoust in a letter to the ministry in 1843, see previous note on Stéphane Gioanni's study). As for Edgar Quinet when he left the commission (p. 104, Chapter VII): "Mounted on a donkey that was partly hiding his huge coat, he was wearing a huge woman's straw hat, the edges of which, lifted by the wind, let see a pink silk ribbon tied under the neck and floating on his chest. On both sides of the saddle were attached species of baskets filled with books; behind, the guide and a horse loaded with the rest of the luggage. He passed thus in the middle of the crowd, without noticing the effect it produced, and without suspecting that it was going to be an extended theme for the officers' conversations and lazzi." Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval, '' Souvenirs (1829-1830)'', Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, printer-publishers, Paris, 1885.
Thus, the members of this section each left in different directions, with Dubois failing to impose his authority and to prevent them doing so, a fact that elicited rather sarcastic comments from Baron Georges Cuvier, the Commissioner of the Academie who was supervising the "competing" Physical Sciences section.A letter from Cuvier, dated 15 April 1829 reads: "My section is still compact and working. Unfortunately it is not the same in that of archaeology. Mr. Lenormant, who just arrived from Egypt, found himself (at 25) humiliated to be under the orders of Mr. Dubois (who is 50) and declared that he was on his own, in order to be able to correspond with the ournal, TheGlobe. A Mr. Schinas, a Greek, and a Mr. Quinet, a philosopher (whom I believe crazy) left on their side, so that this poor Mr. Dubois remains almost alone with a painter (Trézel) who has precisely become blind when arriving and the young Amaury-Duval. The architecture section also has a sort of madman, named Vietty, who runs alone without anyone knowing what he's doing." (in Edgar Quinet, ''Journal de Voyage'', notes complémentaires, n. 118, p. 290-291). Their results will never be published. The main archaeological work was performed then by the Architecture and Sculpture section, which the remaining members of the Archaeology section joined.
Architecture and Sculpture section
This section had been established at the ''
Académie des Beaux-arts
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, f ...
Guillaume-Abel Blouet
Guillaume-Abel Blouet (6 October 1795 – 7 May 1853) was a French architect who specialised in prison design.
Biography
Blouet was born at Passy. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1821 at the École des Beaux-Arts, entitling him to five years' ...
as its head. To assist him, the Institut had also sent the archaeologist Amable Ravoisié and the painters
Frédéric de Gournay
Frédéric and Frédérick are the French versions of the common male given name Frederick. They may refer to:
In artistry:
* Frédéric Back, Canadian award-winning animator
* Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor
* Frédéric Bazille, Impress ...
and
Pierre Achille Poirot
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
. The archaeologist
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (1780-1846) was a French illustrator and lithographer, also an archaeologist and curator at the Louvre museum.
Life
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois studied fine arts and painting in the ateliers of painters Antoine-Jean Gros ...
and the painters Pierre Félix Trézel and Amaury-Duval joined them after the dispersion of the archaeology section.
The architect
Jean-Nicolas Huyot
Jean-Nicholas Huyot (December 25, 1780, Paris – August 2, 1840, Paris) was a French architect, best known for his 1833 continuation of the Arc de Triomphe from the plans of Jean Chalgrin.
Biography
Son of a builder, Huyot attended the Écol ...
gave very precise instructions to this section. Possessed of a wide-ranging experience formed in Italy, Greece, Egypt and the Middle East, and under the influence of engineers, he asked them to keep an authentic diary of their excavations where precise measurements read off watches and compasses should be written down, to draw a map of the region they travelled, and to describe the layout of the terrain.
Itineraries
The publication of the works on archaeology and art followed the same pattern as with the publication of the works on physical and natural sciences: that of an itinerary with descriptions of the roads travelled, noteworthy monuments along these routes, and descriptions of their destinations. Hence, volume I of ''Expédition de Morée. Section des Beaux Arts'' describes Navarino (pp. 1–7) with six pages of drawings (fountains, churches, the fortress of Navarino and the city of
Nestor
Nestor may refer to:
* Nestor (mythology), King of Pylos in Greek mythology
Arts and entertainment
* "Nestor" (''Ulysses'' episode) an episode in James Joyce's novel ''Ulysses''
* Nestor Studios, first-ever motion picture studio in Hollywood, L ...
); then on pages 9–10, the road Navarino- Methoni is detailed with four pages of plates (a church in ruins and its frescoes, but also bucolic landscapes reminding the reader that the scene is not so far from Arcadia); and finally three pages on Methoni with four pages of drawings.
The bucolic landscapes were rather close to the "norm" that
Hubert Robert
Hubert Robert (22 May 1733 – 15 April 1808) was a French painter in the school of Romanticism, noted especially for his landscape paintings and capricci, or semi-fictitious picturesque depictions of ruins in Italy and of France.Jean de Cayeux. ...
had proposed for the depictions of Greece. The presence of the troops from the expeditionary corps was important, alternating with that of the Greek shepherds: " ..their generous hospitality and simple and innocent manners reminded us of the beautiful period of pastoral life which fiction calls the Golden age, and which seemed to offer the real characters of the
Theocritus
Theocritus (; grc-gre, Θεόκριτος, ''Theokritos''; born c. 300 BC, died after 260 BC) was a Greek poet from Sicily and the creator of Ancient Greek pastoral poetry.
Life
Little is known of Theocritus beyond what can be inferred from h ...
eclogue
An eclogue is a poem in a classical style on a pastoral subject. Poems in the genre are sometimes also called bucolics.
Overview
The form of the word ''eclogue'' in contemporary English developed from Middle English , which came from Latin , wh ...
s."Blouet, 1831, v. I, p. 25
The archaeological expedition travelled through Navarino ( Pylos), Methoni,
Koroni
Koroni or Corone ( el, Κορώνη) is a town and a former municipality in Messenia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Pylos-Nestoras, of which it is a municipal unit. Known as ''Corone' ...
,
Messene
Messene (Greek: Μεσσήνη 𐀕𐀼𐀙 ''Messini''), officially Ancient Messene, is a local community within the regional unit (''perifereiaki enotita'') of Messenia in the region (''perifereia'') of Peloponnese.
It is best known for the ...
and Olympia (described in the publication's first volume);
Bassae
Bassae ( la, Bassae, grc, Βάσσαι - ''Bassai'', meaning "little vale in the rocks") is an archaeological site in Oichalia, a municipality in the northeastern part of Messenia, Greece. In classical antiquity, it was part of Arcadia. Bassae ...
Nafplio
Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in th ...
n (subjects of the second volume); the Cyclades ( Syros,
Kea
The kea (; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the family Nestoridae found in the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green with a brilliant orange under its wings ...
,
Mykonos
Mykonos (, ; el, Μύκονος ) is a Greek island, part of the Cyclades, lying between Tinos, Syros, Paros and Naxos. The island has an area of and rises to an elevation of at its highest point. There are 10,134 inhabitants according to t ...
Sounion
Cape Sounion (Modern Greek: Aκρωτήριο Σούνιο ''Akrotírio Soúnio'' ; grc, Ἄκρον Σούνιον ''Άkron Soúnion'', latinized ''Sunium''; Venetian: ''Capo Colonne'' "Cape of Columns") is the promontory at the southernmost ...
, Aegina,
Epidaurus
Epidaurus ( gr, Ἐπίδαυρος) was a small city ('' polis'') in ancient Greece, on the Argolid Peninsula at the Saronic Gulf. Two modern towns bear the name Epidavros: '' Palaia Epidavros'' and '' Nea Epidavros''. Since 2010 they belong to ...
,
Troezen
Troezen (; ancient Greek: Τροιζήν, modern Greek: Τροιζήνα ) is a small town and a former municipality in the northeastern Peloponnese, Greece, on the Argolid Peninsula. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the muni ...
,
Nemea
Nemea (; grc, Νεμέα; grc-x-ionic, Νεμέη) is an ancient site in the northeastern part of the Peloponnese, in Greece. Formerly part of the territory of Cleonae in ancient Argolis, it is today situated in the regional unit of Corinthia ...
Sicyon
Sicyon (; el, Σικυών; ''gen''.: Σικυῶνος) or Sikyon was an ancient Greek city state situated in the northern Peloponnesus between Corinth and Achaea on the territory of the present-day regional unit of Corinthia. An ancient mon ...
Elis
Elis or Ilia ( el, Ηλεία, ''Ileia'') is a historic region in the western part of the Peloponnese peninsula of Greece. It is administered as a regional unit of the modern region of Western Greece. Its capital is Pyrgos. Until 2011 it w ...
Cape Matapan
Cape Matapan ( el, Κάβο Ματαπάς, Maniot dialect: Ματαπά), also named as Cape Tainaron or Taenarum ( el, Ακρωτήριον Ταίναρον), or Cape Tenaro, is situated at the end of the Mani Peninsula, Greece. Cape Matapan ...
,
Monemvasia
Monemvasia ( el, Μονεμβασιά, Μονεμβασία, or ) is a town and municipality in Laconia, Greece. The town is located on a small island off the east coast of the Peloponnese, surrounded by the Myrtoan Sea. The island is connected ...
Methods of exploration and identification of Ancient Pylos
The artistic and archaeological exploration of the Peloponnese unfolded in the manner in which archaeological research was then conducted in Greece. The first step always involved an attempt to make an on-site check (a form of autopsy in the manner of Herodotus) against the texts of ancient authors like Homer,
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
* Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of ...
or Strabo. Thus, at Cape Coryphasium near Navarino (''Paleokastro, Old Navarino or Zonchio''), the location of the city of the Homeric King Nestor, the famous Pylos, was determined for the first time from the adjectives "inaccessible" and "sandy" (''ἠμαθόεις'') used in the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'' (the
palace of Nestor
The Palace of Nestor (Modern Greek: Ανάκτορο του Νέστορα) was an important centre in Mycenaean times, and described in Homer's ''Odyssey'' and ''Iliad'' as Nestor's kingdom of "sandy Pylos".
The palace featured in the story of ...
, located higher up in the land, was not discovered until 1939 by the American archaeologist
Carl Blegen
Carl William Blegen (January 27, 1887 – August 24, 1971) was an American archaeologist who worked at the site of Pylos in Greece and Troy in modern-day Turkey. He directed the University of Cincinnati excavations of the mound of Hisarlik, the ...
). Blouet added: "These Hellenic constructions, which no modern traveller had yet mentioned, and which I had noticed in a previous visit, were for us an important discovery and a very-plausible reason to convince us that we saw the Pylos of Messinia." Similarly, a little further, he says about the city of Modon ( Methoni), the Homeric city of
Pedasus
Pedasus ( Ancient Greek: Πήδασος) has been identified with several personal and place names in Greek history and mythology.
Persons
In Homer's '' Iliad'', Pedasus was the name of a Trojan warrior, and the son of the naiad Abarbarea and ...
: "the ancient remains of the port, whose description agrees perfectly with that of Pausanias, are sufficient to determine with certainty the location of the ancient city."
First archaeological excavations of the Ancient Messene
Having explored Navarino, Methoni and Koroni, the members of the section went to the ancient city of
Messene
Messene (Greek: Μεσσήνη 𐀕𐀼𐀙 ''Messini''), officially Ancient Messene, is a local community within the regional unit (''perifereiaki enotita'') of Messenia in the region (''perifereia'') of Peloponnese.
It is best known for the ...
(founded in 369 BC by the Theban general Epaminondas after his victory over Sparta at
Leuctra
Leuctra or Leuktra ( grc, τὰ Λεῦκτρα, tà Leûktra, grc, τὸ Λεῦκτρον, tò Leûktron, label=none ) was a village of ancient Boeotia, situated on the road from Thespiae to Plataea, and in the territory of the former city. I ...
), located on the slopes of Mounts
Ithome
Mount Ithome (Greek: Ἰθώμη) or Ithomi, previously Vourkano(s) ( el, Βουρκάνο(ς)) or Voulcano(s) ( el, Βουλκάνο(ς)), is the northernmost of twin peaks in Messenia, Greece. Mount Ithome rises to about , about over Valyra, ...
and Eva. They spent a full month there from April 10, 1829, where they were warmly welcomed by the inhabitants of the village of Mavrommati. They were the first archaeologists to carry out scientific excavations on this site of
classical Greece
Classical Greece was a period of around 200 years (the 5th and 4th centuries BC) in Ancient Greece,The "Classical Age" is "the modern designation of the period from about 500 B.C. to the death of Alexander the Great in 323 B.C." ( Thomas R. Marti ...
.
They found there the famous fortified and crenelated surrounding walls of Epaminondas in a perfect state of preservation. There were two monumental portals in the wall, one of which, having a lintel or
architrave
In classical architecture, an architrave (; from it, architrave "chief beam", also called an epistyle; from Greek ἐπίστυλον ''epistylon'' "door frame") is the lintel or beam that rests on the capitals of columns.
The term can als ...
of an extraordinary 6 meters in length, was described by Blouet as "perhaps the most beautiful in all of Greece". This enclosure initially allowed them to delimit the site and to "give a general plan of Messene with the most meticulous and precise topographic details." Then, they proceeded to the proper excavation of the archaeological site. They unearthed for the first time many fragments of stadium bleachers, drum sections and capitals of columns, porticoes, altars, bas-reliefs, sculptures and inscriptions (noted by Charles Lenormant, still present at that time). These excavations, carried out by means of dug trenches, enabled them to determine the precise plans of the foundations of the monuments and thus to propose restored models of the stadium of Messene and its heroon, as well as the small theater or ekklesiasterion. However, they did not find all monuments, including the great theater and the ''Arsinoë'' fountain. Only the ''Clepsydra'' fountain (where according to Pausanias, Zeus as a child was washed by the nymphs Ithome and Neda), located higher in the village of Mavrommati, was described and drawn.
First archaeological excavations of Olympia and the discovery of the temple of Olympian Zeus
Then, the expedition spent six weeks, starting on May 10, 1829, in Olympia.
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (1780-1846) was a French illustrator and lithographer, also an archaeologist and curator at the Louvre museum.
Life
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois studied fine arts and painting in the ateliers of painters Antoine-Jean Gros ...
(Archaeology section) and
Abel Blouet
Guillaume-Abel Blouet (6 October 1795 – 7 May 1853) was a French architect who specialised in prison design.
Biography
Blouet was born at Passy. He won the Grand Prix de Rome in 1821 at the École des Beaux-Arts, entitling him to five years' ...
(Architecture and Sculpture section) undertook the first excavations there. They were accompanied by the painters
Frédéric de Gournay
Frédéric and Frédérick are the French versions of the common male given name Frederick. They may refer to:
In artistry:
* Frédéric Back, Canadian award-winning animator
* Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor
* Frédéric Bazille, Impress ...
,
Pierre Achille Poirot
Pierre is a masculine given name. It is a French form of the name Peter. Pierre originally meant "rock" or "stone" in French (derived from the Greek word πέτρος (''petros'') meaning "stone, rock", via Latin "petra"). It is a translation ...
, Pierre Félix Trézel and Amaury-Duval, as well as a troop of more than a hundred workers. The site of Olympia had been rediscovered in 1766 by the English antiquarian Richard Chandler. Since then, it had been visited by many other travellers such as Fauvel, Pouqueville, Gell, Cokerell and Leake. Its general identification by the archaeologists of the Morea expedition was made possible thanks to the more precise descriptions of Edward Dodwell (for Dubois) and
John Spencer Stanhope
John Spencer Stanhope (1787–1873) was an English landowner and antiquarian.
Life
The son of Walter Spencer-Stanhope, he was born 27 May 1787. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1804. Around 1807 he was in Edinburgh, and joined the S ...
(for Blouet). Most of the buildings were invisible, because as Abel Blouet noted, they must have been covered with a thick layer of sediment due to the frequent overflows of rivers
Alfeios
The Alfeiós or Alpheios ( el, Αλφειός, grc, Ἀλφειός, Latin Alpheus) is the main stream of the Alpheios Valley drainage system, a dendritic type, originating on the north slopes of Mount Taygetus, located in the center of the Pel ...
and Kladeos."''Another observation which completely destroys these assumptions, is that the excavations which we had made at the temple of Olympian Jupiter, proved to us that the ancient soil of the plain was 10 and 12 feet below the modern soil. In this modern soil, which is a ground of alluvium brought by the waters of both the
Alfeios
The Alfeiós or Alpheios ( el, Αλφειός, grc, Ἀλφειός, Latin Alpheus) is the main stream of the Alpheios Valley drainage system, a dendritic type, originating on the north slopes of Mount Taygetus, located in the center of the Pel ...
and those which came down from the sandy mountains that surround the valley, one should not look for traces of the hippodrome and the stadium, since this land did not exist when there was a stadium and an hippodrome''." Abel Blouet, 1831, v. I, p. 58
Only a single large fragment of a Doric column was visible. It had already been spotted by the previous travellers because the inhabitants of neighboring villages had dug trenches there to remove the stone, but none of them had attributed it with certainty to the temple of Zeus. Abel Blouet specified:Blouet, 1831, v. I, p. 61 "Therefore, there could have been no merit in discovering a monument there. But what could have been a discovery was to find evidence that this monument was the famous temple of Olympian Jupiter. And this is what our excavations have enabled us to demonstrate. When we arrived at Olympia, Mr. Dubois, director of the Archaeology section of our expedition, had already been there for a few days with Mr. Trézel and Mr. Amaury Duval, his collaborators. Following the instructions which had been given to him by the commission of the Institute, this antiquarian (Dubois) had begun the excavations of which the result had been the discovery of the first bases of the two columns of the pronaos and several fragments of sculpture." The archaeological advice of
Jean-Nicolas Huyot
Jean-Nicholas Huyot (December 25, 1780, Paris – August 2, 1840, Paris) was a French architect, best known for his 1833 continuation of the Arc de Triomphe from the plans of Jean Chalgrin.
Biography
Son of a builder, Huyot attended the Écol ...
was thus followed. Dubois installed his workers on the front side of the temple and Blouet installed his own on the back side in order to give these excavations all possible extension. The painter Amaury-Duval gave in his '' Souvenirs (1829-1830)'' a personal, direct and precise, testimony"Before looking for a site to establish our camp, a real natural curiosity made us go on an adventure. Some Greeks who plowed their field, as always with the pistol and the yatagan on their belts, offered to guide us. Mr. Dubois, believing that he already knew enough the place, wanted to do without their help, and chance made it so that I, who was far from having this pretension, arrived first on the site of the temple that my colleagues found, later, to be that of Olympian Zeus. Here is how. A Greek, whom Mr. Dubois had rejected, attached himself to me, and, probably looking for the tip, wanted to lead me to a place, which his pantomime made me suppose to be very interesting. "Go ahead, if you like, said Mr. Dubois; but he will lead you to some uninteresting Roman ruin." So I followed my guide to a part of the almost inaccessible plain, covered with shrubs, grasses, huge stones, but shapeless and which rose from the ground at an equal distance. This confused heap of materials of all kinds seemed to me, however, to deserve attention. I came back to rejoin Mr. Dubois, whom I found disappointed to have encountered only uninviting ruins, very badly preserved, and nothing which seemed to lead to any discovery. My account made him think: he went, with Trézel and me, towards the place I had just seen, and decided immediately that the excavations would be started there",
Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Duval
Eugène Emmanuel Amaury Pineux Duval (16 April 1808 – 25 December 1885), better known by the pseudonym Amaury-Duval, was a French painter. He was one of two sons of Amaury Duval (1760–1838) and thus a nephew of the playwright Alex ...
, ''Souvenirs (1829-1830)'', Chapter IX, Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885. of the events which led to the exact identification of the Temple of Olympian Zeus, which was thus determined for the first time.
Here again, the precise descriptions of the sculptures, structural elements of the temple and metopes representing the Twelve Labours of Heracles made by
Pausanias Pausanias ( el, Παυσανίας) may refer to:
* Pausanias of Athens, lover of the poet Agathon and a character in Plato's ''Symposium''
*Pausanias the Regent, Spartan general and regent of the 5th century BC
* Pausanias of Sicily, physician of ...
who visited the site during the second century AD, proved crucial to validate the identity of the temple of Zeus. These sculptures, which reflect the beginnings of classical art and of the severe style, strongly struck the archaeologists in Olympia and in Paris at the Academy by their novel type imbued with naturalism.
As with the excavations led at Messene, the site was divided topographically into squares, trenches were dug, excavations were undertaken in straight lines, and models for restoration were proposed: archaeology was becoming rationalized. The simple treasure hunt was beginning to be abandoned. The fundamental contribution of the Morea scientific expedition was its total indifference towards looting, treasure hunting, and antiquities smuggling. Blouet refused to perform excavations that risked damaging the monuments, and banned the mutilation of statues with the intent of taking a piece separated from the rest without regard, as Elgin had done on the Parthenon some twenty-five years before. It is perhaps for this reason that the three metopes of the temple of Zeus discovered at Olympia were transferred in their entirety to the Louvre Museum (with the authorization of the Greek Government of Ioannis Kapodistrias). However, many precious works they excavated were re-buried in order to protect them, according to the direct testimony of Amaury-Duval."We left the valley of the
Alfeios
The Alfeiós or Alpheios ( el, Αλφειός, grc, Ἀλφειός, Latin Alpheus) is the main stream of the Alpheios Valley drainage system, a dendritic type, originating on the north slopes of Mount Taygetus, located in the center of the Pel ...
, with real sadness and regretting not being able to take away some souvenirs; but the fragments of sculpture, even the smallest, were of an embarrassing volume and weight.There was, among other works, a marble foot, of admirable work, which was still attached to a part of the base: lest it be subjected to yet another more complete mutilation, we went to bury it, Trézel and I, in a deeply dug hole. Who knows ? this fragment will perhaps deceive some antiquaire of the future, if he discovers it at the place where we placed it." Eugène-Emmanuel Amaury-Duval, '' Souvenirs (1829-1830)'', p. 201, Chapter XIII "Départ d'Olympie", Librairie Plon, E. Plon, Nourrit et Cie, imprimeurs-éditeurs, Paris, 1885. In any case, this willingness to protect the integrity of monuments represented epistemological progress.
Modon The Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones ( ar, الهيئة السعودية للمدن الصناعية ومناطق التقنية), also known simply as MODON ( ar, مُدُن) is a government organization created by the Go ...
(Church of Saint Basil), Androusa (Church of St. George), Samari (Church of Zoodochou Pigis) or of the Vourkano monastery (or Voulkano, monastery of the Holy Mother) among others.
Foundation of the
French School at Athens
The French School at Athens (french: École française d’Athènes, EfA; el, Γαλλική Σχολή Αθηνών ''Gallikí Scholí Athinón'') is one of the seventeen foreign archaeological institutes operating in Athens, Greece.
History ...
The results obtained by the Morea scientific expedition underscored the need to create a permanent, stable structure that would allow its work to continue. From 1846, it was possible to systematically and permanently continue the work initiated by the Morea scientific expedition due to the creation on rue Didot, at the foot of Mount Lycabettus, of a French scientific institution, in the form of the
French School at Athens
The French School at Athens (french: École française d’Athènes, EfA; el, Γαλλική Σχολή Αθηνών ''Gallikí Scholí Athinón'') is one of the seventeen foreign archaeological institutes operating in Athens, Greece.
History ...
.
End of the scientific mission
The vast majority of members of the scientific expedition paid a heavy price for the fevers they suffered during their sojourn in Morea. Many were forced to shorten their stay on the peninsula and to be repatriated to France before the beginning of 1830.
The topographic brigade was severely affected: out of eighteen officers who had been successively employed in the topographical works of the Morea, three had died there and ten, whose health was ruined, were forced to retire. Captain Peytier wrote in 1834: "It is geodesy that ruins my health and I do not want anymore to do it in the mountains, at any cost whatsoever." They were therefore reduced to work only during the cool season and to stop for summer, the season during which they drew their maps. Jean-Baptiste Bory de Saint-Vincent, meanwhile wrote: "The horrible heat that beset us in July placed the entire topographic brigade in disarray. These gentlemen, having worked in the sun, have nearly all taken ill, and we grieved to see M. Dechièvre die at
Napoli
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's admini ...
eight days ago." Émile Puillon Boblaye wrote: "Out of twelve officers employed in the geodetic service, two are dead and all have been sick. Besides them, we have lost two sappers and a household servant."Puillon-Boblaye, Letter of 23 August 1829, in ''Bulletin de la Société de Géographie.'', vol. 12, nr. 75-80, July – December 1829., p. 124.
As for the physical sciences section, its members had forgotten to install mosquito nets in their tents before exploring the mouth of the Eurotas in July 1829, and subsequently they were bitten by a species of mosquito that
Gaspard Auguste Brullé
Gaspard Auguste Brullé (7 April, 1809 – 21 January, 1873) was a French entomologist.
Passionate about insects from a young age and through the intervention of Georges Cuvier, he participated in the Morea expedition organised by Jean Baptiste B ...
Gaspard Auguste Brullé
Gaspard Auguste Brullé (7 April, 1809 – 21 January, 1873) was a French entomologist.
Passionate about insects from a young age and through the intervention of Georges Cuvier, he participated in the Morea expedition organised by Jean Baptiste B ...
, three muleteers, two sappers, an interpreter and the valet Villars, were all seized with violent fevers, which sometimes worsened to the point of delirium, and which precipitated the departure of the section for Malvoisie, thus suspending their works. Bory de Saint-Vincent, one of the only members of the section to be spared from the disease, took a
caïque
A caïque ( el, καΐκι, ''kaiki'', from tr, kayık) is a traditional fishing boat usually found among the waters of the Ionian or Aegean Sea, and also a light skiff used on the Bosporus. It is traditionally a small wooden trading vessel, br ...
and immediately went to
Nafplio
Nafplio ( ell, Ναύπλιο) is a coastal city located in the Peloponnese in Greece and it is the capital of the regional unit of Argolis and an important touristic destination. Founded in antiquity, the city became an important seaport in th ...
by sea, despite the storms, to seek help. The Bavarian philhellene doctor Mr. Zuccarini was then sent to Malvoisie and saved all his patients, except a sapper and the valet Villars who both died. President Ioannis Kapodistrias then placed a steamship at their disposal to repatriate them to Nafplion, then from there, to France. Bory de Saint-Vincent, Pierre Félix Trézel, Virlet d'Aoust and Peytier will then explore the Cyclades and Attica. In the Archaeology section,
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois (1780-1846) was a French illustrator and lithographer, also an archaeologist and curator at the Louvre museum.
Life
Léon-Jean-Joseph Dubois studied fine arts and painting in the ateliers of painters Antoine-Jean Gros ...
, Edgar Quinet and Amaury-Duval have been also affected by fever and were then prematurely repatriated to France."Some health reasons having forced Messrs Dubois and Duval to return to France, I will continue the voyage alone with the instructions that Monsieur Dubois leaves me in writing. He takes with him the drawings I have made since the beginning of our campaign." Pierre Félix Trézel, ''Journal de voyage de M. Trézel'' (unpublished), National Library of France - BnF, n. acq. fr. 1849, fol. 19r (21 July 1829).
Only
Jean-Baptiste Vietty
Jean-Baptiste Vietty, (14 December 1787 - 1842) was a French sculptor and archaeologist.
Born at Amplepuis in the département of the Rhône, the son of a decorative plasterworker of Italian origin, Vietty worked in the ateliers of the painte ...
and Pierre Peytier continued their research in the country, until August 1831 for the first and March 1836 for the second.
Members of the Morea expedition
Publications of the Morea expedition
Back in France, soldiers and scientists of the Morea expedition recounted their personal experiences or presented their scientific results in numerous works which were published throughout the 19th century.
* Baloti Xeni D., ''Le maréchal N.J. Maison (1771-1840) - Un Grand Philhellène'', editions Helliniki Euroekdotiki, Athens, 1993.
*Bourguet Marie-Noëlle, Lepetit Bernard, Nordman Daniel, Sinarellis Maroula, ''L’Invention scientifique de la Méditerranée. Égypte, Morée, Algérie.'', Editions EHESS, 1998.
*Brewer David, ''The Greek War of Independence : The Struggle for Freedom from Ottoman Oppression and the Birth of the Modern Greek Nation'', New York, The Overlook Press, 393 p., 2001.
*Brunet de Presle Wladimir and Alexandre Blanchet, ''Grèce depuis la conquête romaine jusqu’à nos jours'', Paris, Firmin Didot, 589 p.,1860.
*Contogeorgis Georges, ''Histoire de la Grèce'', Paris, Hatier, coll. Nations d'Europe, 477 p., 1992.
*Dakin Douglas, ''The Greek Struggle for Independence, 1821-1833'', University of California Press, 1973.
*Driault Édouard and Lhéritier Michel, ''Histoire diplomatique de la Grèce, de 1821 à nos jours'', volume I and II, Les presses universitaires de France, Paris, 1925.
*Gioanni Stéphane ''Jean-Baptiste Vietty et l'Expédition de Morée (1829). À propos de deux manuscrits retrouvés'' Journal des Savants, De Boccard, 2 (1), pp. 383 - 429, 2008.
*Hugo Abel, ''France militaire. Histoire des armées françaises de terre et de mer de 1792 à 1837.'' Delloye, 1838.
*Kalogerakou Pigi P. (''Καλογεράκου Πηγή Π.''), ''The contribution of the French expeditionary corpse to the restoration of the fortresses and the cities of Messinia'' ( Η συμβολή του Γαλλικού εκστρατευτικού σώματος στην αποκατάσταση των φρουρίων και των πόλεων της Μεσσηνίας '', in Οι πολιτικοστρατιωτικές σχέσεις Ελλάδας - Γαλλίας (19ος - 20ός αι.), Direction of the Army's History (''Διεύθυνση Ιστορίας Στρατού''), 13–41, Athens, 2011.
*Kapodistrias Ioannis ''Correspondance du comte J. Capodistrias, président de la Grèce'' A. Cherbuliez et Cie., Paris, Geneva, 1839.
*Livieratos Evangelos, ', Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, website .
*Livieratos Evangelos, ''Cartographic adventures of Greece 1821-1919'', Athens: MIET/ELIA; p. 287, 2009.
*Kastanis Andreas, The teaching of mathematics in the Greek military academy during the first years of its foundation (1828–1834) ', Historia Mathematica, vol. 30, no 2, p. 123-139, May 2003.
*Polychronopoulou Olga, ''Archéologues sur les pas d’Homère. La naissance de la protohistoire égéenne'', Noêsis, Paris, 1999.
*Yiannis Saïtas et coll., ''L'œuvre de l'expédition scientifique de Morée 1829-1838'', Edited by Yiannis Saïtas, Editions Melissa, 2011 (1re Partie) - 2017 (2nde Partie).
* Γιάννης Σαΐτας et al., ''Το έργο της γαλλικής επιστημονικής αποστολής του Μοριά 1829-1838'', Επιμέλεια Γιάννης Σαΐτας, Εκδόσεις Μέλισσα, 2011 (Μέρος Α΄) - 2017 (Μέρος Β΄).
* Sivignon Michel, Université Paris X - Nanterre, Les enseignements de la carte de Grèce à l’échelle de 1/200.000 (publiée en 1852) ' (Pergamos - Digital Library of the University of Athens (UoA)). Communication presented in the seminar of Gythion-Areopolis Lakonias ''Voyageurs et expéditions scientifiques: témoignages sur l'espace et la société de Mani'', 4-7 nov 1993 and published in ''Mani. Témoignages sur l’espace et la société. Voyageurs et expéditions scientifiques (15°-19° siècle)'', Athens, Institut d’Études Néo-helléniques, p. 435-445, 1996.
* Schmitz Jean ''Territorialisation du savoir'' ''et invention de la Méditerranée'' in ''Cahiers d’études africaines'', n°165, 2002.
*Simopoulos Kyriakos, ''Ξενοκρατία, μισελληνισμός και υποτέλεια'', εκδ. Στάχυ, p. 450-455, Athens, 1997.
*Simopoulos Kyriakos, ''Ξένοι Ταξιδιώτες στην Ελλάδα'', vol. 1–4, χ.ε. 1970–76, editions Στάχυ, Athens, 2001.
*Simopoulos Kyriakos, ''Πως είδαν οι Ξένοι την Ελλάδα του '21 (1821-1829)'', vol. 1–5, χ.ε. 1979–82, editions Πιρόγα, Athens, 2007.
*Themeli-Katifori Despina (Θεμελή-Κατηφόρη Δέσποινα), ''Το Γαλλικό Ενδιαφέρον για την Ελλάδα στην Περίοδο του Καποδίστρια 1828-1831'', Αθήνα, εκδ. Επικαιρότητα, 1985, (''French interest in Greece during the Capodistrian period 1828-1831'', Athens, ed. Epikairotita, 1985).
*Tsagkaraki Anastasia, Les philhellènes français dans la lutte pour l’indépendance grecque (1821-1831) ', Revue Historique des Armées, 2nd trimester 2016.
*Tisrigos Antonis K. (Τσιρίγος Αντώνης Κ.), ''The Capodistrian School of Methoni'' (''Το καποδιστριακό Σχολείο της Μεθώνης, 1829-2016''), preface by Pr. Petros Themelis, Private Edition, Athens, 2017.
*Tzanakos Nikos (Τζανάκος Νίκος), ''Η γαλλική εκστρατεία στον Μοριά και ο στρατάρχης Μαιζών (The French expedition to Morea and Marshal Maison)'', Editions Pikramenos (Εκδόσεις Πικραμένος), Patras, 2017.
*Vaulabelle Archibald de, ''Histoire des deux Restaurations, jusqu’à l'avènement de Louis-Philippe, de janvier 1813 à octobre 1830.'', Perrotin, 1860.
*Witmore, C.L. ''“The Expedition scientifique de Moree and a map of the Peloponnesus.”'' Dissertation on th Metamedia site at Stanford University. 2005
*Woodhouse Christopher Montague, ''The Battle of Navarino'', Hoddler and Stoughton, 191 p., London, 1965.
*Woodhouse Christopher Montague, ''The Philhellenes'', London, Hodder et Stoughton, 192 p., London, 1969.
*Zambon Alessia (pref. Alain Schnapp), ''Aux Origines de l’archéologie en Grèce : Fauvel et sa méthode'', 351 p., Paris cths et INHA, 2014.
*Collective, ''An Index of events in the military history of the greek nation'', Athens, Hellenic Army General Staff, Army History Directorate, 1st ed., 471 p., 1998.
*'' Le Courrier d'Orient'', French-language newspaper published by Maxime Raybaud in Patras between 1828 and 1829 during the French expedition in Peloponnese.