The Unknown Greek Landing in Beirut (1826)
While in 1826 the events in Greece had taken a turn for the worse, with Missolonghi in its final throes and the revolution in danger of being extinguished under the pressure of Ibrahim, a group of daring chieftains decided to do the unthinkable. To bring the war miles away, to the shores of Lebanon. This is the story of the expedition to Beirut, an operation attempted to combine the relief of the insurgents in Greece with the vision of a common destiny for all the Romioi of the East. The situation in the Peloponnese and Central Greece was dramatic. Resources had been exhausted and the need for a diversion was more than urgent. The chieftains who organized the plan were no ordinary men. Vasos Mavrovouniotis (a Serb who became a hero of the Greek revolution), Nikolaos Kriezotis, and Hatzimichalis Dalianis (the future hero of Frangokastello). Their goals were ambitious. They wanted to force the Sublime Porte to detach troops from Greece to protect its provinces in the East, while simultan...