Morea

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Morea (Greek: Μωρέας or Μωριάς) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. It also referred to a Byzantine province in the region, known as the Despotate of Morea.

1 Origins of the name
2 History
3 Chronicle of Morea
4 Reference
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] Origins of the name

There is some uncertainty over the origin of the name "Morea", which is first recorded in the 10th century in Byzantine chronicles. As with many other things in the Balkans, part of the uncertainty stems from the political implications behind each suggested origin of the name.

Popular belief in Greece today is that the name originates from the word moria, meaning mulberry, a common plant in the region. The use of a long 'o' (Μωρέα) is a strong argument against this explanation.

The spelling (specifically, the use of a long o, ω), and the context of the earliest references to Morea lend support to the theory that the name comes from the word moros (μωρός) meaning fool, which was also commonly used to refer to rebels or outlaws during Byzantine times. Morea, then, would be the land of the rebels, a good description of the peninsula for much of its history. This explanation, although it is the most plausible among Greek linguists, is often rejected today by the locals, as the word moros in modern Greek has retained its ancient meaning, but has lost its Byzantine connotations.

In 1830, the Austrian historian Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer (1790–1861) published the first of his volumes Geschichte der Halbinsel Morea während des Mittelalters ("History of the Morea Peninsula during the Middle Ages"). Based on his analysis of the spread of Slavic placenames in mainland Greece, Fallmerayer concluded that the 19th century Greeks had almost no linear cultural connection to the ancients but a large one to the Slavic tribes who had invaded during the 6th and 7th centuries. To support his thesis, Fallmerayer proposed that the word comes from the Slavic word more, meaning sea. Fallmerayer's theory has long been discredited, and was disproved in the 1990s through extensive genetic studies.

[edit] History

The Morea and surrounding states carved from the Byzantine Empire, as they were in 1265 (William R. Shepherd, Historical Atlas, 1911)

After the conquest of Constantinople by the forces of the Fourth Crusade (1204), two groups of Franks undertook the occupation of the Morea. They created the Principality of Achaea, a largely Greek-inhabited statelet ruled by a Latin (Western) autocrat. In referring to the Peloponnese, they followed local practice and used the name "Morea".

The most important prince in the Morea was Guillaume II de Villehardouin (1246–1278), who fortified Mistra (Mystras) near the site of Sparta in 1249. After losing the Battle of Pelagonia (1259) against the Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus, Guillaume was forced to ransom himself by giving up most of the eastern part of Morea and his newly built strongholds.

In the mid-14th century, the later Byzantine Emperor John VI Cantacuzenus reorganized Morea into the Despotate of Morea, usually ruled from Mistra by the current heirs of the emperor. The Byzantines eventually recovered the remainder of the Frankish part of Morea, but in 1460 the peninsula was overrun and conquered by the Ottoman Empire.

The peninsula was captured for the Republic of Venice by Francesco Morosini during the Great Turkish War. Venetian rule proved unpopular, and the Ottomans recaptured the Morea in a lightning campaign in 1714. Under renewed Ottoman rule, centred at Tripolitsa, the region enjoyed relative prosperity, but the latter 18th century was marked by renewed dissatisfaction. The brutal repression of the Orlov Revolt did not hinder the emergence of the armed bands of the klephts, which waged a virtual guerrilla war with the Turks, aided both by the decay of Ottoman power and the re-emergence of Greek national consciousness. Ultimately, the Moreas would form the cradle and centre of the Greek Revolution.

[edit] Chronicle of Morea

The anonymous 14th century Chronicle of Morea in more than 9,000 lines of political verse, relates events of the establishment of feudalism in mainland Greece by the Franks following the Fourth Crusade. The Chronicle is famous in spite of its historical unreliability because of its lively description of life in the feudal community and because of the character of the language which reflects the rapid transition from Medieval to Modern Greek. The Chronicle, written in French, survives in two parallel Greek texts, the Ms Havniensis 57 (14th–15th century, in Copenhagen) and the Ms Parisinus graecus 2898 (15th–16th century, at the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris), and the difference of about one century shows a considerable number of linguistic differences due to the rapid evolution of the Greek language.

[edit] Reference

Crusaders as Conquerors: the Chronicle of Morea, translated from the Greek with notes and introduction by Harold E. Lurier, Columbia University, 1964.