Morea

Author: Laxman Burdak, IFS (R).

Map of Greece

Morea (Hindi:मोरिया) 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 Empire for the Morea Eyalet, and by the Republic of Venice for the short-lived Kingdom of the Morea.

Variants of name

• Peloponnēsus (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 9, 51, 67, 81, 96, 125, 150, 310, 384.)
• Greek: Μορέας or Μοριάς,
• Albanian: Moreja
• French: Morée
• Italian: Morea
• Turkish: Mora
• Peloponnese/ Peloponnesus/Peloponnēsus/Peloponnesians/ (Arrian)

Jat Gotras Namesake

• Mor = Morea (Greek:Μορέας) = Peloponnēsus (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 9, 51, 67, 81, 96, 125, 150, 310, 384.)
• Moriya = Morea (Greek:Μορέας) = Peloponnēsus (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 9, 51, 67, 81, 96, 125, 150, 310, 384.)
• Mairiha = Morea (Greek:Μορέας) = Peloponnēsus (Anabasis by Arrian, p. 9, 51, 67, 81, 96, 125, 150, 310, 384.)

Origins of the name

There is some uncertainty over the origin of the medieval name "Morea", which is first recorded only in the 10th century in the Byzantine chronicles.

Traditionally scholars thought the name originated from the word morea (μορέα), meaning morus or mulberry, a tree which, though known in the region from the ancient times, gained value after the 6th century, when mulberry-eating silkworms were smuggled from China to Byzantium.

The British Byzantinist Steven Runciman suggested that the name comes "from the likeness of its shape to that of a mulberry leaf."

Peloponnese peninsula

The Peloponnese (/ˈpɛləpəˌniːz/) or Peloponnesus (/ˌpɛləpəˈniːsəs/; Greek: Πελοπόννησος, Peloponnisos, Greek pronunciation: [peloˈponisos]) is a peninsula and geographic region in southern Greece. It is separated from the central part of the country by the Isthmus of Corinth and the Gulf of Corinth. During the late Middle Ages and the Ottoman era, the peninsula was known as the Morea (Greek: Μωρέας), a name still in colloquial use in its demotic form (Μωριάς).

The peninsula has been inhabited since prehistoric times. Its modern name derives from ancient Greek mythology, specifically the legend of the hero Pelops, who was said to have conquered the entire region. The name Peloponnesos means "Island of Pelops".

The Mycenaean civilization, mainland Greece's (and Europe's) first major civilization, dominated the Peloponnese in the Bronze Age from its stronghold at Mycenae in the north-east of the peninsula. The Mycenean civilization collapsed suddenly at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. Archeological research has found that many of its cities and palaces show signs of destruction. The subsequent period, known as the Greek Dark Ages, is marked by an absence of written records.

In 776 BC, the first Olympic Games were held at Olympia, in the western Peloponnese and this date is sometimes used to denote the beginning of the classical period of Greek antiquity. During classical antiquity, the Peloponnese was at the heart of the affairs of ancient Greece, possessed some of its most powerful city-states, and was the location of some of its bloodiest battles.

The major cities of Sparta, Corinth, Argos and Megalopolis were all located on the Peloponnese, and it was the homeland of the Peloponnesian League. Soldiers from the peninsula fought in the Persian Wars, and it was also the scene of the Peloponnesian War of 431–404 BC. The entire Peloponnese with the notable exception of Sparta joined Alexander's expedition against the Persian Empire.

Along with the rest of Greece, the Peloponnese fell to the expanding Roman Republic in 146 BC, when the Romans razed the city of Corinth and massacred its inhabitants. The Romans created the province of Achaea comprising the Peloponnese and central Greece. During the Roman period, the peninsula remained prosperous but became a provincial backwater, relatively cut off from the affairs of the wider Roman world.

Greek History

After the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade (1204), two groups of Franks undertook the occupation of the Morea. They created the Principality of Achaea, a largely Greek-inhabited statelet ruled by a Latin (Western) autocrat. In referring to the Peloponnese, they followed local practice and used the name "Morea".

The most important prince in the Morea was Guillaume II de Villehardouin (1246–1278), who fortified Mistra (Mystras) near the site of Sparta in 1249. After losing the Battle of Pelagonia (1259) against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, Guillaume was forced to ransom himself by giving up most of the eastern part of Morea and his newly built strongholds. An initial Byzantine drive to reconquer the entire peninsula failed in the battles of Prinitza and Makryplagi, and the Byzantines and Franks settled to an uneasy coexistence.

In the mid-14th century, the later Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos reorganized Morea into the Despotate of the Morea. Sons of the emperor with the rank of despotes were usually sent to rule the province as an appanage. By 1430, the Byzantines eventually recovered the remainder of the Frankish part of the Morea, but in 1460 the peninsula was almost completely overrun and conquered by the Ottoman Empire. In July 1461 the last holdout, Salmeniko Castle, was taken.

The peninsula was captured for the Republic of Venice by Francesco Morosini during the Morean War of 1684–99. Venetian rule proved unpopular, and the Ottomans recaptured the Morea in a lightning campaign in 1714. Under renewed Ottoman rule, centered at Tripolitsa, the region enjoyed relative prosperity. The latter 18th century was marked by renewed dissatisfaction. Armed bands of the klephts emerged, undeterred by the brutal repression of the Orlov Revolt. They waged guerrilla war against the Turks, aided both by the decay of Ottoman power and the emergence of Greek national consciousness. Ultimately, the Morea and its inhabitants provided the cradle and backbone of the Greek Revolution. == History of Sri Lanka -- The Moriya (Maurya) are mentioned as rulers in Sri Lanka.

The medieval period of Sri Lanka begins with the fall of Anuradhapura Kingdom. In AD 993, the invasion of Chola emperor Rajaraja I forced the then Sri Lankan ruler Mahinda V to flee to the southern part of the country. Taking advantage of this situation, Rajendra I, son of Rajaraja I, launched a large invasion in AD 1017. Mahinda V was captured and taken to India, and the Cholas sacked the city of Anuradhapura. Subsequently, they moved the capital to Polonnaruwa. This marked the end of the two great houses of dynasties of ancient Sri Lanka, the Moriya and the Lambakanna (Lambakarna).

Jat History

People who once lived in the region known as Morea (मोरिया) in Greece are said to be applied to Jat clan Mairiha.

जाट इतिहास

विश्व विजय सिकन्दर के देश ग्रीस में भी जाटों ने अपना उपनिवेश स्थापित किया था, यद्यपि इस समय ग्रीस में उनका अस्तित्व नहीं पाया जाता, किन्तु उसके मोरिया (Morea) के निकट ज्यूटी (Zouti) द्वीप के निवासी जाटों के उत्तराधिकारी हैं।

Ch 1.1 Death of Philip and Accession of Alexander— His Wars with the Thracians

Arrian writes...It is said that Philip died^[1] when Pythodemus was archon at Athens,^[2] and that his son Alexander,^[3] being then about twenty years of age, marched into Peloponnesus^[4] as soon as he had secured the regal power. There he assembled all the Greeks who were within the limits of Peloponnesus,^[5] and asked from them the supreme command of the expedition against the Persians, an, office which they had already conferred upon Philip. He received the honour which he asked from all except the Lacedaemonians,^[6] who replied that it was an hereditary custom of theirs, not to follow others but to lead them. The Athenians also attempted to bring about some political change; but they were so alarmed at the very approach of Alexander, that they conceded to him even more ample public honours than those which had been bestowed upon Philip.^[7] He then returned into Macedonia and busied himself in preparing for the expedition into Asia. However, at the approach of spring (b.c. 335), he marched towards Thrace, into the lands of the Triballians and Ilyrians,^[8] because he ascertained that these nations were meditating a change of policy; and at the same time, as they were lying ton his frontier, he thought it inexpedient, when he was about to start on a campaign so far away from bis own land, to leave them behind him without being entirely subjugated. Setting out then from Amphipolis, he invaded the land of the people who were called independent Thracians,^[9] keeping the city of Philippi and mount Orbelus on the left. Crossing the river Nessus,^[10] they say he arrived at Mount Haemus^[11] on the tenth day. Here, along the defiles up the ascent to the mountain, he was met by many of the traders equipped with arms, as well as by the independent Thracians, who had made preparations to check the further advance of his expedition by seizing the summit of the Haemus, along which was the route for the passage of his army. They had collected their waggons, and placed them in front of them, not only using them as a rampart from which they might defend themselves, in case they should be forced back, but also intending to let them loose upon the phalanx of the Macedonians, where the mountain was most precipitous, if they tried to ascend. They had come to the conclusion^[12] that the denser the phalanx was with which the waggons rushing down came into collision, the more easily would they scatter it by the violence of their fall upon it.

But Alexander formed a plan by which he might cross the mountain with the least danger possible; and since he was resolved to run all risks, knowing that there were no means of passing elsewhere, he ordered the heavy-armed soldiers, as soon as the waggons began to rush down the declivity, to open their ranks, and directed that those whom the road was sufficiently wide to permit to do so should stand apart, so that the waggons might roll through the gap; but that those who were hemmed in on all sides should either stoop down together or even fall flat on the ground, and lock their shields compactly together, so that the waggons rushing down upon them, and in all probability by their very impetus leaping over them, might pass on without injuring them. And it turned out just as Alexander had conjectured and exhorted. For some of the men made gaps in the phalanx, and others locked their shields together. The waggons rolled over the shields without doing much injury, not a single man being killed under them. Then the Macedonians regained their courage, inasmuch as the waggons, which they had excessively dreaded, had inflicted no damage upon them. With a loud cry they assaulted the Thracians. Alexander ordered his archers to march from the right wing in front of the rest of the phalanx, because there the passage was easier, and to shoot at the Thracians where they advanced. He himself took his own guard, the shield-bearing infantry and the Agrianians,^[13] and led them to the left. Then the archers shot at the Thracians who sallied forward, and repulsed them; and the phalanx, coming to close fighting, easily drove away from their position men who were light-armed and badly equipped barbarians. The consequence was, they no longer waited to receive Alexander marching against them from the left, but casting away their arms they fled down the mountain as each man best could. About 1,500 of them were killed; but only a few were taken prisoners on account of their swiftness of foot and acquaintance with the country. However, all the women who were accompanying them were captured, as were also their children and all their booty.

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1.B.C. 336. He was murdered by a young noble named Pausanias, who stabbed him at the festival which he was holding to celebrate the marriage of his daughter with Alexander, king of Epirus. It was suspected that both Olympias and her son Alexander were implicated in the plot. At the time of his assassination Philip was just about to start on an expedition against Persia, which his son afterwards so successfully carried out. See Plutarch (Alex., 10); Diod., xix. 93, 94; Aristotle (Polit., v. 8, 10).

2. It was the custom of the Athenians to name the years from the president of the college of nine archons at Athens, who were elected annually. The Attic writers adopted this method of determining dates. See Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.

3. Alexander the Great was the son of Philip II. and Olympias, and was born at Pella B.C. 356. In his youth he was placed under the tuition of Aristotle, who acquired very great influence over his mind and character, and retained it until his pupil was spoiled by his unparalleled successes. See Aelian (Varia Historia, xii. 54). Such was his ability, that at the age of 16 he was entrusted with the government of Macedonia by his father, when he marched against Byzantium. At the age of 18 by his skill and courage he greatly assisted Philip in gaining the battle of Chaeronea. When Philip was murdered, Alexander ascended the throne, and after putting down rebellion at home, he advanced into Greece to secure the power which his father had acquired. See Diod., xvi. 85; Arrian, vii. 9.

4. See Justin, xi. 2.

5. "Arrian speaks as if this request had been addressed only to the Greeks within Peloponnesus; moreover he mentions no assembly at Corinth, which is noticed, though with some confusion, by Diodorus, Justin, and Plutarch. Cities out of Peloponnesus, as well as within it, must have been included; unless we suppose that the resolution of the Amphictyonic assembly, which had been previously passed, was held to comprehend all the extra-Peloponnesian cities, which seems not probable."—Grote.

6. Justin (ix. 5) says: "Soli Lacedaemonii et legem et regem contempserunt." The king here referred to was Philip.

7. See Justin, xi. 3; Aeschines, Contra Ctesiphontem, p. 564.

8. The Triballians were a tribe inhabiting the part of Servia bordering on Bulgaria. The Illyrians inhabited the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea, the districts now called North Albania, Bosnia, Dalmatia and Croatia.

9. We learn from Thucydides, ii. 96, that these people were called Dii.

10. The Nessus, or Nestus, is now called Mesto by the Greeks, and Karasu by the Turks.

11. Now known as the Balkan. The defiles mentioned by Arrian are probably what was afterwards called Porta Trajani. Cf. Vergil (Georg., ii. 488); Horace (Carm., i. 12, 6).

12. πεποιηντο:—Arrian often forms the pluperfect tense without the augment. διασκεδάσουσι:—The Attic future of this verb is διασκεδώ, Cf. Aristoph. (Birds, 1053).

13. The Agrianes were a tribe of Eastern Paeonia who lived near the Triballians. They served in the Macedonian army chiefly as cavalry and light infantry.

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p.8-11

Ch 1.24 Alexander in Lycia and Pamphylia

Arrian writes....Some of the Macedonians who served in Alexander's army had married just before he undertook the expedition. He thought that he ought not to treat these men with neglect, and therefore sent them back from Caria to spend the winter in Macedonia with their wives. He placed them under the command of Ptolemy, son of Seleucus, one of the royal body-guards, and of the two generals Coenus, son of Polemocrates, and Meleager, son of Neoptolemus, because they were also newly married. He gave these officers instructions to levy as many horse and foot soldiers as they could from the country, when they returned to him and brought back the men who had been sent away with them. By this act more than by any other Alexander acquired popularity among the Macedonians. He also sent Cleander, son of Polemocrates, to levy soldiers in Peloponnesus,^[1] and Parmenio to Sardis, giving him the command of a regiment of the Cavalry Companions, the Thessalian cavalry, and the rest of the Grecian allies. He ordered him to take the wagons to Sardis and to advance from that place into Phrygia.

He himself marched towards Lycia and Pamphylia, in order to gain command of the coast-land, and by that means render the enemy's fleet useless. The first place on his route was Hyparna, a strong position, having a garrison of Grecian mercenaries; but he took it at the first assault, and allowed the Greeks to depart from the citadel under a truce. Then he invaded Lycia and brought over the Telmissians by capitulation; and crossing the river Xanthus, the cities of Pinara, Xanthus, Patara, and about thirty other smaller towns were surrendered to him.^[2] Having accomplished this, though it was now the very depth of winter, he invaded the land called Milyas,^[3] which is a part of Great Phrygia, but at that time paid tribute to Lycia, according to an arrangement made by the Great King. Hither came envoys from the Phaselites,^[4] to treat for his friendship, and to crown him with a golden crown; and the majority of the maritime Lycians also sent heralds to him as ambassadors to treat for the same object. He ordered the Phaselites and Lycians to surrender their cities to those who were despatched by him to receive them; and they were all surrendered. He soon afterwards arrived himself at Phaselis, and helped the men of that city to capture a strong fort which had been constructed by the Pisidians to overawe the country; and sallying forth from which those barbarians used to inflict much damage upon the Phaselites who tilled the land.^[5]

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1. See Arrian, ii. 20 infra.

2. The Marmarians alone defended their city with desperate valour. They finally set fire to it, and escaped through the Macedonian camp to the mountains. See Diodorus (xvii. 28). As to Xanthus the river, see Homer (Iliad, ii. 877; vi. 172); Horace (Carm., iv. 6, 26).

3. Lycia was originally called Milyas; but the name was afterwards applied to the high table in the north of Lycia, extending into Pisidia. See Herodotus, i. 173.

4. Phaselis was a seaport of Lycia on the Gulf of Pamphylia. It is now called Tekrova.

5. He also crowned with garlands the statue of Theodectes the rhetorician, which the people of Phaselis, his native city, had erected to his memory. This man was a friend and pupil of Aristotle, the tutor of Alexander. See Plutarch (Life of Alex., 17); Aristotle (Nicom. Ethics, vii. 7).

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p.66-68