Giorgakis Olympios
Giorgakis Olympios ( Greek Γεωργάκης Ολύμπιος , Romanian Iordache Olimpiotul; * 1772 ; † 1821 ) was a Greek armatole and military commander during the Greek war of independence against the Ottoman Empire . Known for his activities for the Greek secret society Filiki Eteria in the Danube principalities , he is considered one of the leading figures of the Greek revolution.
biography
Early activities
He was born in the Ottoman ruled Greece in the village of Livadi , near Larissa . After joining the Armatolikia in the Mount Olympus area at the age of 20, he became a prominent member of local society by protecting the villages against Ali Pasha's raids . In 1798, however, he was forced to leave his place of birth and fled to Serbia , where he collaborated for some time with Karađorđe Petrović during the First Serbian Uprising , under the name Kapetan Jorgać.
He became a supporter of Rigas Feraios' ideas for a joint Balkan revolution against Ottoman rule, and moved to Wallachia . There, with the help of Konstantin Ypsilantis , he set up a Greek armed force that took part with the Russian Empire in the Russo-Turkish War of 1806 . After the Battle of Ostrova , he was appointed Polkovnik (Colonel) in the Russian Army.
Greek War of Independence
In 1817 he joined the Filiki Eteria secret society, with the high rank of Shepherd . He recruited many others for the Eteria and made contacts with the Wallachian Pandur Tudor Vladimirescu , who led the Wallachian uprising of 1821 . He met and married Veljko Petrović's widow, Čučuk Stana , who came from Serbia to fight in the Greek War of Independence. They had three children.
At the beginning of the Greek Revolution, when the Eteria began their expedition in Moldova and Wallachia, he was the leader of the Greek armed forces in Bucharest .
He took part in the Battle of Sculeni on June 29, 1821, where Ottoman troops, along with Yiannis Pharmakis and a small troop of 400 Greeks, hunted him to the Secu monastery . Olympios died during the Ottoman raid on the monastery.
credentials
- Peter H. Paroulakis: The Greeks: Their Struggle For Independence . Hellenic International Press, 1984. ISBN 0-9590894-1-1 .
- Poti Stratiki: To Athanato 1821 . Stratikis Bros., 1990. ISBN 960-7261-50-X .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Olympios, Giorgakis |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ολύμπιος, Γεωργάκης (Greek); Olimpiotul, Iordache (Romanian) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Greek armatole and military commander during the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1772 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Livadi |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1821 |