Teodoros Kolokotrones

Kolokotrones, Teodoros 

Born Apr. 14, 1770, in Kartena, Messinia; died Feb. 15, 1843, in Athens. Greek general during the national liberation revolution of 1821–29.

Kolokotrones descended from a family of Klephts in the Peloponnesus. An outstanding leader, he combined military talent and personal bravery with professional experience and close ties to the peasantry. Koloktrones gained military experience serving in the Greek light infantry units created on the Ionic Islands by the Russians and the English. Under his command, the insurgents captured Tripolis on Sept. 26 (Oct. 8), 1821, and smashed the Turkish army of Mahmud Pasha Dramali in the summer of 1822. From 1825 to 1827, as commander in chief of the Greek forces in the Peloponnesus, Kolokotrones successfully used guerrilla tactics against the numerically superior forces of the Egyptian military leader Ibrahim Pasha.

Although Kolokotrones belonged to the democratic wing of the leadership of the revolution, he did not hold to a precise political line during the revolution and sometimes entered into agreements with large landowners of the Peloponnesus. From 1827 he supported I. Kapodistrias; when the latter died in 1831, Kolokotrones became the leader of the so-called Russian party. Under King Otto (1832–62), he was a member of the State Council from 1835 to 1843.

G. L. ARSH