Inspired by the martial art of the Empires two main rivals at the time, the Germans and the nomads of the East, the eminent general Belisarius conceived the idea of finding the antidote, which was none other than the dual-role cavalry . The new cavalry he intended to assemble had to have suffic
In 533 AD Justinian assigned the general Belisarius to conquer the marauding state of the Germanic Vandals in North Africa. For this purpose, he allocated only 5,000 horsemen of which 1,500 were elite buccalarians, under Ioannis Troglitis. On June 24, 533 AD the small Byzantine army landed in No
One of the worst and relatively unknown incidents of foreign intervention in Greece is what took place in Argos on January 4, 1833 when French soldiers indiscriminately killed Greeks, men, women and children. Of course, in this case too there was the fratricidal finger. The assassination of Kapod
In February 1825 a new formidable opponent set foot on Moria. It was Ibrahim, the stepson of the Egyptian dynast Mehmet Ali, who arrived at the head of regular troops, commanded by French and Italian officers. The Greeks had nothing to oppose him. Nothing, except the Old Man of Moria. Ibrahim wa
The battle of Peta, on July 4, 1822, was one of the most disastrous for the Greek arms during the Revolution of 1821. But it was also one of the most glorious where the Greek regular soldiers, a few Philhellenes and Iptanesians, fought something more than heroic although they knew that the barbarian
In 1185 the well-known Norman marauders of Sicily who were overseeing the Byzantine Empire attacked, occupied and plundered Thessaloniki. With a base in the Empires second city, they could easily threaten the capital Constantinople. The city was then ruled by the usurper Andronikos I Komnenos who
At the start of the civil conflicts, in 1823, Ioannis Makrygiannis initially found himself on the side of the Kolokotronis faction. However, coming into conflict with Gennaios Kolokotronis, he placed himself under the orders of his opponents and fought against Kolokotronis portion in Tripolitsa, whi
In 1537 the Turks, under Suleiman, the so-called magnificent, threatened the Empire and Venice again with Christian France as an ally. The unholy alliance between the French and the Turks was aimed at the destruction of the Habsburg empire, but unfortunately it also affected the Greeks... The un
On October 28, 969 AD the great Syrian metropolis of Antioch was freed from the Arab yoke by the Byzantines. The humiliated Arabs of the region then asked for peace. However, the new dynasty ruling Egypt, that of the Fatimids, had a different opinion and declared a holy war against the infidel Greek
At the end of the 15th century the city of Pisa had submitted to the neighboring and stronger Florence. The Pisates, taking advantage of the French invasion of Italy in 1495, had succeeded in regaining their independence. However, after the departure of the French, the position of Pisa became critic
Mercurius Boas was a great figure of Hellenism in the Renaissance period. He was the leader of the Greek light horsemen, known as Stratiots, who fought and won glory on the Italian battlefields during the Italian Wars. Through the few elements that time has saved for the action of this great persona
Ioannis Kapodistrias arrived in Greece on January 18, 1828. He had been elected governor of Greece by the Third National Assembly of Troizina, on March 30, 1827. However, Kapodistrias election did not please either Britain or France, which suddenly saw the new state sliding into the arms of Russia,
After their victory against the Venetians in the Peloponnese in 1715-16 (7th Venetian-Turkish War), the Turks decided to attack Corfu. The Turks appeared opposite the island with 116 ships which carried 7,000 janissaries, an equal number of Albanians, 1,500 spachids, about 500 gunners, 1,000 more au
American researchers, who relied on an improved tree-dating technique, announced around 1560 B.C. as the most likely date for the powerful Minoan eruption of the volcano of Thira (Santorini). The dating of the explosion, one of the most powerful ever to have occurred on Earth, is a major challeng
The magnanimity of Stelios Mavrommatis, a few hours before he went up to the gallows, is monumental. He had the power to forgive the one who betrayed him. The priest writes:Mavrommatis was a very sentimental guy, but active and energetic and full of patriotic enthusiasm. He was very magnanimous and
Recently, the yield on the 10-year Greek government bond fell below 1% for the first time in the history of Greece, which is an achievement, after the adventures of the last decade, when the ten-year bond yield reached 36.5%. This reminds us of the Independence loans, the first ones contracted by Gr
When the ridiculous Italian dictator Mussolini declared war on Greece, the small Greek Air Force (then Royal Hellenic Air Force - EBA) had two Gloster Gladiator Mk I fighter jets donated by expatriate Stylianos Sarpakis. By December 1940 the EBA was already exhausted in its effort to deal with the p
New research by a Greek anthropologist of the diaspora, which took place in Paliokastro on the island of Thassos, brought to light, among other discoveries, a skull from the early Byzantine period (fourth to seventh century AD). The skull bears traces of surgery, which is incredibly complex, accordi
His voice sounds sharp and decisive in the small cell allocated to him in the sixth wing of Korydallos Prisons. I was deceived by Cisco and Kissinger about Turkeys real intentions in Cyprus. He himself, dressed in a tracksuit, has just risen from the campaign bed where he has been resting for the in
In March 1941, Group W landed in Greece with the 6th Australian Infantry Division (AIP), the 2nd New Zealand Infantry Division (NZIP) and the 1st Armored Brigade (ATB). The well-known events followed, the collapse of the front and the retreat of the British forces towards southern Greece in order to
Talleyrand He was one of those men who clung to power and did not detach himself from it until he died, a man who managed to have enormous power without having the responsibilities of being the leader of a government, but rather his greatest and closest adviser. Born into a noble family who claimed
The Second Empire , led by Napoleon III from December 2, 1852 to September 4, 1870, succeeded the short-lived Second Republic. It was a period of great economic growth, particularly industrial, financial and banking, which caused social changes, such as the development of the working class. After an
On September 26, 1908, around 11 p.m., a train rolled into the tiny Bezdany station near Vilnius. Several dozen people were waiting on the platform. Among them was a gray-haired man with a bushy mustache. None of the travelers had any idea that the moustached stranger was ZIUK, i.e. Józef Piłsudski,
First of all, I would like to specify that the term moro comes from the Latin maurus, the name of the inhabitants of the Roman province of Mauritania orMauretania , an area of North Africa that corresponded to the Mediterranean coast of what is now Morocco and that has nothing to do with the cur