Battle of Alamana

Infobox Military Conflict
conflict=Battle of Alamana
partof=the Greek War of Independence


caption="The Battle of Alamana" (1821). Painting by Zographou.
date=April 1821
place=Thermopylae, Greece
casus=
territory=
result=Ottoman victory
combatant1=
combatant2=
commander1=Athanasios Diakos, Panourgias Panourgias, Yiannis Dyovouniotis
commander2=Omer Vryonis
strength1=1,500 irregulars
strength2=9,000 troops
casualties1=unknown
casualties2=unknown

The Battle of Alamana was fought between the Greeks and the Turks during the Greek War of Independence in April of 1821.

Battle

Omer Vryonis, the commander of the Turkish army, advanced with 8,000 men from Thessaly to crush the revolt that had broken out in Peloponnesos. Athanasios Diakos, Panourgias Panourgias and Yiannis Dyovouniotis with their bands of armatoloi (a total of perhaps 1,500 men) took up defensive positions at the river Alamana (Spercheios), near Thermopylae.

Vryonis' attack forced Panourgias and Dyovouniotis to retreat, leaving Diakos alone. Diakos's men fought for several hours before they were overwhelmed.

Death of Diakos

Eventually, Diakos himself was captured and taken to Vryonis after he was shot in the foot and had his sword broken. When Vryonis offered to make Diakos an officer in his army, Diakos immediately refused and replied:

"I was born a Greek and I will die a Greek"."

Vryonis then ordered that Diakos be impaled on a spit and roasted over a fire. The Turks tried to make Diakos carry the long spit, but he threw it down with contempt. As he was led off to die, onlookers heard him sing:

"Look at the time Charon chose to take me, now that branches are flowering, now that the earth sends forth grass".

Diakos's song was in reference to the Greeks' uprising against the Turks.

Aftermath

Even though the battle was ultimately a military defeat for the Greeks, Diakos's death provided the Greek national cause with a stirring myth of heroic martyrdom.

ources

*Paroulakis, Peter Harold. "The Greeks: Their Struggle for Independence". Hellenic International Press, 1984. ISBN 0-9590894-0-3.