25 January 2013

The Rebels: 1480

Territory of the heart of the Kladas revolt, inland from Kardamyli, 
although without the aid of most of the roads shown here. Google Maps.


Among the missing information for the Kladas revolt of 9 October 1480 is the size of the revolt. A variety of numbers has been put forth --  a recent Mani writer claims 16,000 rebels -- but with a little combing we can come up with some reasonable numbers. With a little more combing, we can come up with the names of probable participants in the rebellion -- one man does not make a rebellion even if he is a Greek.

In 1867, Konstantinos Sathas wrote that 1600 revolted with Kladas. (Going through his sources, I have not been able to find where he got that number.)  The Venetian report said that Kladas had his company and 16 more in the revolt.  A year earlier, he had a company of 150 men.  If they all joined him, and the 16, that would make 166.  You can see a certain resemblance between that number and 1600 and 16,000.  The epenthetic zero is an important factor in sorting through Greek history, as I wrote a year ago in discussing the propensity to cite 6000 as the number of fighting men in the Morea.

Since there was a peace settlement with the Turks, Venice had decided to disband most of the stratioti companies, but asthe officials in charge of that arrived in Koroni a couple of months after the revolt, it is quite possible that about 150 stratioti accompanied Kladas.  That was a substantial group, and quite enough to cause serious alarm, especially as Kladas was flying the flag of S. Marco with its red field and golden lion. Normal riding -- I am told this by horse people who have looked at the map and the mountains -- would have taken them about six hours from Koroni to Kalamata, and possibly as much as twelve more to Kardamyli.

The 9th of October was the night of the full moon.  Mani writers tend to claim that the company rode out of Koroni on the night of the full moon, without considering that Koroni could not have held so many horses within its walls, or that gates of Venetian cities in the stato da mar were locked at night.  The full moon comes into the report because -- as the Senato did in Venice, and the Sultan in Constantinople -- people may not have calendars but they nearly always know when the full moon is.  Reports of the revolt make it clear that Kladas had supporters in Mani who joined the revolt: the full moon let them know when to be prepared.

About the other 16: Kladas revolted, or led a revolt, because the peace settlement after the war assigned Mani to the Ottomans, and thus the Kladas lands of Elos and Vordounia were taken away from them.
Thomas Kladas, lost his villages of Ardovisca, Prasto, and Milea, granted in recognition of the services of his father who was killed fighting the Turks. Matheus Rallis Melithi lost the mills at Mantinea granted in an argyrobull from the Despots. Michali Rallis Drimi lost four villages. Perigrino Busichi, his brothers Silo and Zorzi, and his nephews Petro and Zorzi, lost the villages they had inherited, as did the brothers Petro Lisi, Lazaros Ingrala, and Micha. Capo Zorzi, Yannis, and Niko Menaia, brothers related to Petro Bua, lost  lands and casalia acquired by inheritance and marriage, and the authority of a document from the despots sealed with a silver seal. Nikolaos and Demetrios Bochalis (whose kinsman had been tortured to death for aiding the Venetians), Nikos Pagomenos and his brother, and Michele Pagino lost lands. Philippo Sofopulo lost Casale and Catafigo. 

The fragments of information about these lands suggests that some of them had been assigned within the Byzantine system of small pronoias, grants to soldiers in return for service. The holders were then entitled to taxes, services, gifts, and grain from the households within the pronoia, in addition to rights over mills, fish ponds, and salt pans. Plotting these locations on a map reveals a dense network of small villages and holding: few of these men would have been considered wealthy, even then. Their incomes and homes were lost, and with peace, most of them lost their real occupation. There are twenty names here in addition to Kladas, all of them likely participants in the revolt. The twenty names do not appear in accounts of the revolt, or in lists of those pardoned, but they had all earlier received assurance about their lands from Venice, and now the lands had evaporated.


The uprising soon took Mantegna belonging to Nicolò Mezan, Megalo, Maino, and then the towers of Castagna, Gastiza, Lestini, and
Ardovisca, and Prasto belonging to Thomas Kladas, la Piaza, and the Casale and Catafigo of Philippo Sofopoulos.
Or to put it another way, the former holders of these territories took them back. Or, the residents, slightly bewildered, joined up with the armed men who appeared with the flag of S. Marco. Since a number of casali joined in rebellion, it is likely that with Mezan and Sofopoulos we have two additional names of men who joined the rebellion. Trigafoli and Oitylo were also taken, or they also joined the Kladas event. Oitylo is more than half-way down the western coast. From Koroni to Oitylo is about 120 kilometers or 75 miles: the rebels covered a great deal of territory without opposition.

The numbers, of course, will have varied from time to time, and once it was known in April that Kladas had escaped on a Neapolitan ship, after a battle in which 700 were said to have been killed (all through the century, 700 and 800 are the regular numbers for people killed by Turks -- Negroponte, Davia, Otranto, Methoni), the number of rebels would have melted like a spring snow.  Bartolomeo Minio, who was instrumental in obtaining a pardon for the rebels (I wrote about this two years ago), said that there were 77 Kladioti at that point.  When the first pardon came in, it listed 17 names: it took a while to get the names vetted, and by that time most of them had become bandits.


The route of the Kladas revolt, from Koroni at the cape,
lower left, to Kardamyli., cape on the right.  Google Maps.



For more detail, see the draft first chapter of my forthcoming book, The Knight and Death: The Kladas Affair and the Fifteenth-Century Morea.


26 comments:

  1. Very interesting information and reasoning, thank you for sharing it. Something else that made me wonder when I read Sathas were the locations. Some are known and unambiguous, like Oitylo or Vitylo, others are not known today, like the castle or town of Maina. Then there are others that are not immediately recognisable, like "Trigafoli". Some Greek writers have "Hellenised" it to Trigofyllon (it is obvious the Venetians got the name wrong) and I remember looking for such a place in Mani only to realise it did not exist. Eventually I found out there was a narrow pass, in a location that made sense and where a tower to guard it could have been built, called Trikefali or Trikefala.

    best regards,
    Pavlos

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    1. Thanks everyone for the stimulating comments.1. Trigafoli: I heard the place is on the neck of the pass to Mani right where the exit to Kelefa village is on the present road from Gytheio to Areopolis. The name is of the appearance of the three headed hill (tri-kefali) above Areopolis as this is seen from this location.Probably at this place there was at those times a tower to dominate the passage. 2. Any suggestions about the location of Megalo and Maina? ("The uprising soon took Mantegna belonging to Nicolò Mezan, Megalo, Maino,...")
      Bests
      Takis Katsafados

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    2. Megalo & Maino? I suspect the manuscript writer or Sathas' copyist misunderstood the letter he was copying & thought Megalo Maino should be two towns.

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  2. You remind me that I have to go back & try to normalize the names again. Every list spells something differently I am trying to conform them to the modern map & transliterations, though many of the transliterations strike me as ugly -- Itilo, for example.

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  3. Maina is what the Venetians (and most likely Greeks) called Braccio de Maina. It's the peninsula south of the town of Areopolis. Castro Maina is on the promontory at Akra Tigani. A good (but not large) number of people from the area settled in Venice in the early part of the 16th c. Very few turned up after the early 1530s.

    Ersie Burke

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  4. Ersie, I don't know if this matter is settled
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigani
    http://www.zorbas.de/maniguide/magne1.html

    best regards,
    Pavlos

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  5. An interesting suggestion/discussion on this topic (Candidates for the possibly numerous Castro/a Maina, EarlyByz,Frankish,Ottoman) may be also found here : http://www.psfkatsafados.gr/

    Best regards,

    Yiannis
    http://pronoiarios.wordpress.com/

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  6. Comments from John Chapman who is technologically challenged. John has what is probably the most useful Mani site on the interwebs, certainly the least propaganda and sentimentality: http://www.maniguide.info/

    * * * * * *

    What's interesting about the Kladas Revolt is that it was based almost exclusively in the Exo Mani. Although he hops on board ship from Porto Kayio in Mesa Mani all the placenames are in Exo Mani or Vardounia. Practically all of them can be identified with present day locations, and it's clear that his party were regaining ascendancy over their territories. The one toponym (and there's always one) we can't pinpoint is Trigafoli but if a previous commentator is correct and it starts mutating into trikelefa, which is damned close to Kelefa one of the leading candidates for the Villehardouin 13th century castle of Grand Magne. (quick question, should there be a comma between Megalo and Maino???) The toponyms dry up around Itilo (not a beautiful transliteration, but most Frangoi still don't know that one doesn't pronounce the o in oi and why a y?) so Ano Poula and Tigani are well out of the picture, and I have grave doubts about Tigani as Grand Magne anyway...but that's another debate for another day.

    Now Villehardouin's castle was over 200 years earlier - and that's a long time. Are they one and the same? Possibly, possibly not. So all bets are off. Though I hope to trek around the putative sites with Takis Katsafados and Malcolm Wagstaff (the two leading experts on the subject) in the spring. But don't expect an epiphany on this conundrum.

    On to how many men Kladas had. Well really not that many. The Exo Mani is very tough terrain. It's precipitous, riven with gorges, packed with olive trees. It is not horse country. And a small band of Greeks in revolt would not have had the necessary supply train, cooks and bottle washers to sustain anything much over 150-200 cavalry horses and their riders. The Exo Mani is pretty fecund agriculturally, but most fodder would have gone on the doubtless hundreds of donkeys. In fact even in the 19th century western travellers were told to leave horses behind at the borders of Mani and hire donkeys, oh and walk.

    So thousands? No, this is merely a hunch by mid 19th century Greek historians creating a myth about the struggle of the Greek nation against the Ottomans, even though in the 1480s any concept of nationhood would be anachronistic to say the least. And 170 or so highly skilled mounted and well armed cavalrymen would be able to command the area quite easily.


    One toponym missing. Zarnata. An impressive castle dominating the route from Kalamata to the centres of power in Exo Mani. Androuvista (Exohori) Proastio, Kastania, etc. etc. Had it been deserted? Was there no Ottoman garrison? One gets the impression not. In fact the Ottomans rarely 'occupied' Mani. Too much trouble. Collect the taxes and if things get too out of hand send in an army. Probably on foot!

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    1. I have no idea if there is a connection between Trikefali and Kelefa. However, there is an area somewhere near Parasyros, where the mountains are called Tria Kefalia. Today's road from Gytheion to Areopolis and Oitylo is not far. It was the setting of a battle in the 1770 uprising, so it may be of some strategic value.
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Vromopigada

      Best regards,
      Pavlos

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    2. May I contribute in this warm and scholarly place on the erudite comments of John Chapman?
      Some facts:
      1) Rettori del Brazzo di Maina
      Last rettore (end date 27.4.1479) was …
      1476 Luigi Barbarigo q. Andrea (el. 23 marzo) fino 27 aprile 1479 (Hopf, Chroniques.., 385)
      2) October 1480
      “...adeo che solevo quelli, et constituitose capo di essi, amazo i Timarci di quel luogo, cun i Subasi di Megalo, et Maina, in tutto Turchi 11, et cun i homeni del ditto Brazo robo el castello et tore de Trigafoli et del Vitello, et amazo i suoi guardiani et el castelan, …” (S.Magno, Sathas 6, 221, 10-13)
      Timarci : military governors
      Subasi : administrative governors
      3) Until the 8th of April 1480…. “questo se ha per lettere de Coron de 8 April et dice verso Maina Granda ancor non esser alcun Turco” (S.Magno, Sathas, 6, 226, 31-33)
      From the above passages it seems that Megalo, Maina and Maina Granda are rather differing locations. What is meant by Maina and what by Maina Granda is an issue. Maina Granda being obviously further south in so far as the usual toponyms indeed “dry up around Itilo” and Maina Granda is not a usual toponym (at least in these “Extraits d’un recueil sous le nom de Stefano Magno). It is probable for the Timarci and Subasi to have been appointed to a place in Mesa Mani but they never established themselves there. They preferred to stay in a more safe and nice-to-live place north. It is where Cladas found and “amazo” them. Their small number 11 supports this assumption.
      Interesting that the Venetians mention castello del Vitello not casale or something similar and this recalls to memory the Portolan Grec I (1534) where a κάστρο is mentioned in the bay of Itilo. If we are talking about Itilo and not something else (as Prof. Wagstaff implies), Itilo in the 15th-16th c. had the appearance and structure of a stronghold.
      Bests
      Takis Katsafados

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  7. An impressive array of people’s and place names. Thank you for sharing this with us. May I add a few questions and remarks?

    “Thomas Kladas lost his villages of Ardovisca, Prasto, and Milea”. Easy to identify, they’re all round modern Chora (old Androuvista).

    “Matheus Rallis Melithi lost the mills at Mantinea”. Is it perhaps a slip for Melichi?

    “Michali Rallis Drimi lost four villages”. Names not mentioned.

    “Perigrino Busichi, his brothers Silo and Zorzi, and his nephews Petro and Zorzi, lost the villages they had inherited”. Again no names of villages. Peregrino is unexpected for a first name; and what does Silo mean?

    “The brothers Petro Lisi, Lazaros Ingrala, and Micha”. Micha is obviously a slip for Michael; could this Ingrala be another misspelling for Riglia? And how come they are brothers since they have different last names?

    “Capo Zorzi, Yannis, and Niko Menaia, Nikolaos and Demetrios Bochalis, Nikos Pagomenos and his brother, and Michele Pagino lost lands”. Again no names given.

    Finally “La Piaza” is obviously Platsa.

    And yes, all place names point to the area of Exo Mani, far away from the Tigani peninsula.

    Thank you again,

    Marios Bletas

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  8. Simply reporting what the documents say. That is what I do. If the documents don't give names of villages, how can I? Same for family names, and no, I have no idea how people who are called brothers have different names -- nor do I worry about it. Perigrino means Pilgrim, and if there were an Italian-Greek marriage -- these things did happen -- an Italian name wouldn't be unexpected.

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  9. Mantinea still exists, just down the coast from Kalamata. Famed for its mills powered by underground water courses.

    John C.

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  10. "The brothers Petro Lisi, Lazaros Ingrala and Micha". Micha is a form of Michael. A Micha Golemi was a stratioto active in the same period. It does exist as a surname though τοο, even today (Μίχας). Their surname was probably Lisi. Ingrala may have been a nickname by which he was known to the Venetians, Ungrateful (Ingrata?)Lazaros perhaps.

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  11. Pavlos, as usual, very helpful. Thank you.

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  12. Thanks for sharing with us your fascinating journey to the late 15th century Morea.
    Please be kind enough to enlighten me on the following:
    a) Timarci (Sathas,6,221,11): it seems that according to Sathas it is derived from the Byzantine Τουρμάρχης. You preferred to translate “the owner of timar(s)”. In this case wouldn’t be more appropriate to be written timarii or something similar? The “c” calls for the «χ». Is this term found elsewhere?
    b) Note 77: If I am not wrong this corresponds to the events of the 19th Jan. 1481 when Cladas defeated the Eunucho Belgerbeg at Vitylo (Sathas 6,223, 3-11 “….Interim el ditto Belgerbeg Eunucho venuto in la Morea cun la sua gente et quelli della provincia, aduno al luogo di Misitra persone 6 mila, tra a piedi et a chavallo; adi 16 zener [1481] ando in detto Brazzo de Maina alla tore di Tregafoli, et quella combate et prese cun 19 homini che era in quella, deli quati tre erano Italiani et el resto paexani; et adi 19 detto ando al luogo de Vitelo, che era el passo principal de intrar in ditto Brazzo, al qual al’ incontro ditto Clada con la sua zente ando, et quello discazo dal ditto luogo, et delo esercito di quello taio a pezi cerca 700, et molti ne feri; undi quelo malmenado ritorno al ditto luogo di Misitra”).
    The number 700 or 800 is indeed intriguing!
    Thanks for your attention
    Takis Katsafados

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  13. I don't think I said anything here about timars. As for TIMARCI, I'd want to see the manuscript to be sure about the transcription, but I have no reason not to think it refers to timar holders. There is a variety of ways to refer to these people, but I use this in parallel to Landholders when I refer to Greeks.

    As for Kladas defeating the Beylerbey -- if he did, why did he have to escape?

    I read this to understand that the EXERCITO cut 700 to pieces. The Venetians used this term for Ottoman horsemen,not, I think, for stratioti horses. A different organizational system entirely, also disciplined, which stratioti were not. The Venetians were extremely concerned about the Ottoman military reaction, as it could extend into Venetian territory should they continue to pursue the Kladioti.

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  14. a) Timarci: I am referring to this part of the text (pertaining to note 54) "He killed the timar holders of the area, with the subaşis of Megalo and Mani,...." where Timarci are considered as the timar holders.
    b) He defeated the Beylerbey at Vitylo in January 1481 ( whereafter the Eunucho "malmenado ritorno" to Mistra); he escaped later, end of March-early April after he was squeezed in Kastania by the combined troops of Ahmed and Ismail. Eunucho had been dismissed earlier
    Thanks your attention
    Takis Katsafados

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  15. Timarci means timar holders. The Turks use the term "timarli" and also "timarci" ("timartzis", like taxitzis, if you allow me the arbitrary transfer to modern Greek).

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    1. Timarci is different to Timarli. Use of the term "Timarci" in other cases (either Venetian or Ottoman) together with procurement of the relavant source would be helpful and welcome
      Thanks for the attention
      Takis Katsafados

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    2. Timarci can be different to timarli but they are often the same. Both are used to describe "feudal" lords and sipahis. Please check the bottom of p. 80 in this book
      http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=U7UfAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=timarci+sipahi&source=bl&ots=eDckplPLXz&sig=u6xEd9c8b8ogsWvQteHEPHKc2Cs&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XcULUde-I4bx4QTQpICYAQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=timarci%20sipahi&f=false

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  16. That would be pronounced timarJi, no X/chi sound to it.
    Thanks, Pavlos.

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  17. Thanks for the quotation.
    Timarci and Sipahi controlled large or small fiefs. Neither of these two terms is synonymous to land owner. Local gentry, military leaders, court officials, tribal chiefs all could equally be land owners. Sipahi was a military man, a warrior on horseback; what was a Timarci? Sathas (Τουρκοκρατουμένη Ελλάς, 38) suggests (rather implies) Byzantine military origin of the word. Was this rendering of him so superficial? I do not know. Thanks anyway for the interesting debate
    Bests
    Takis Katsafados

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  18. "“Matheus Rallis Melithi lost the mills at Mantinea”. Is it perhaps a slip for Melichi?"

    He is Matthaios Asanis Palaiologos Rallis Melikis(Ματθαίος Ασάνης Παλαιολόγος Ράλλης(Ραούλ) Μελίκης) (lots of names...and lots of lands in Peloponnesos...) died in 1497. No 17790 in Prosopographischen Lexikons der Palaiologenzeit.

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