Description of the Greek Army
John L. Comstock

1829

As to the Grecian army, the habits of the body who compose it, and the system by which it is regulated, are requally singular. Its commanders or capitani are such landholders, or others, as possess a sufficient sum to maintain from 10 to 150 soldiers, and adequate interest to procure a commission for embodying them. These leaders, however, are in general the most despicable and the worst enemies of their country; making their rank and interest merely the instruments of their avarice. The number of troops in the Morea, for whom the Government issue pay and rations, is stated to be, in general, about 25,000; but I do not believe, from all that I can learn, that in any instance they have equalled the half of that number; the capitani making their returns to the extent of their credit, and in general pocketing one half of the demanded sum. So that a man who claims pay for 150 soldiers, cannot perhaps bring eight into the field. Of this system of fraud the Government are well aware; but, in the present state of affairs, they are so much in the power of the capitani, that no compulsive measures dare be taken to produce a reform. Each soldier, or palikari, on joining his capitan, is expected to come furnished with his arms and capote; the former usually consist of a pair of pistols, an ataghan, a tophaic, or long gun, and sometimes a sabre. They are, however, bound by no laws or military regulations, and merely follow or obey a leader, as long as well paid or comfortable in his service; he having no power to enforce obedience during his almost nominal command, or to compel his soldiers, beyond the limit of their pleasure, to remain under his orders. It is no unusual thing for the company of a capitan to assemble round his quarters, for the purpose of tumultuously demanding, and enforcing by the bastinado, an increase or arrears of pay; or, on the eve of an important movement, to find that his soldiers have gone off during the night, to attend to the safety of their families, or the celebration of a festival. As to their conduct in the field, they will never oppose an enemy, unless obliged by necessity, without the shelter of their tambours or low trenches; or without crouching behind a rock, from whence they can have protected aim at their foe. The Turks too, have something of the same system in their irregular warfare; and before the introduction of regular troops into the Morea, a battle must have presented a novel spectacle, where not a soul of either army was distinctly visible. Thus, screened behind a stone, they lie in wait to catch the first moment when an enemy shall expose himself, or placing their schalpae, or skull-cap, on an adjoining rock to decoy the Turk, take an advantageous aim at him whilst he is wasting his powder on the empty head-dress of his enemy. When the Greek has thus thinned all within his range, and wishes to change his position, he watches for the favourable movement, when, snatching up his gun, he nimbly skips to the adjoining rock, flashing his shining ataghan before him in the sun-beams, to dazzle the aim of his surrounding enemies; and here crouching on the ground and placing his cap as usual, he recommences his operations. Amongst the Turks who resided in the Morea, all were not so desperately bad as are supposed, and some few have even gained the affections of the Greeks. It not unfrequently occurs that two old neighbours meet in one of those singular encounters, when, rising from their screens, they hold a parley on their own affairs; and again part to resume, at their post, their mutual slaughter of their friend's companions. Such scenes serve to keep in countenance Homer's description of the dialogues of his contending heroes; but, in fact, instances of ancient manners are to be met with every hour, and at every step something occurs to remind us that we are in Greece. The language, the customs, the versatility, the turbulence, the superstition, are all the same as in the days of Demosthenes. Even the dress seems to have undergone scarcely any alteration; they have still the long flowing hair; the junctanella, the machaira or short knife, and the embroidered greaves. But, in fact, as a comparison, I know none more lively or more true than the picture drawn by Mr. Hope; and I may be pardoned for summing up this hasty sketch with an extract from the well-known, and equally admired "Anastasius."

"Manoyeni looked thoughtful. After a little pause, 'You mistake, Anastasius,' replied he, 'in thinking the Greek of Constantinople different from the Greek of Chios: our nation is every where the same; the same at Petersburgh as at Cairo; the same now as it was 20 centuries ago.' I stared in my turn. 'What I say,' continued my master, 'is perfectly true. The complexion of the modern Greek may receive a different cast from different surrounding objects; the core still is the same as in the days of Pericles. Credulity, versatility, and thirst of distinctions, from the earliest period formed, and still form, and ever will continue to form, the basis of the Greek character; and the dissimilarity in the external appearance of the nation arises, not from any radical change in its temper and disposition, but only in the incidental variation in the means through which the same propensities are to be gratified. The ancient Greeks worshipped an hundred gods; the modern Greeks adore as many saints. The ancient Greeks believed in oracles and prodigies, in incantations and spells; the modern Greeks have faith in amulets and divinations. The ancient Greeks brought rich offerings and gifts to the shrines of their deities, for the purpose of obtaining success in war, and pre-eminence in peace; the modern Greeks hang up dirty rags round the sanctuaries of their saints, to shake off an ague, or propitiate a mistress. The former were staunch patriots at home, and subtle courtiers in 'Persia; the latter defy the Turks in Maina, and fawn upon them in the Fanar. Besides, was not every commonwealth of ancient Greece as much a prey to cabals and factions as every community of modern Greece? Does not every modern Greek preserve the same desire for supremacy, the same readiness to undermine, by every means, fair or foul, his competitors, which was displayed by his ancestors? Do not the Turks of the present day resemble the Romans of past ages in their respect for the ingenuity, and, at the same time, in their contempt for the character, of their Greek subjects? And does the Greek of the Fanar show the least inferiority to the Greek of the Piraeus in quickness of perception, in fluency of tongue, and in fondness for quibbles, for disputation, and for sophistry? Believe me, the very difference between the Greeks of times past, and the present day, arises from their thorough resemblance, and from that pliability of temper and of faculties in both, which has ever made them receive, with equal readiness, the impression of every mould, and the impulse of every agent. When patriotism, public spirit, and pre-eminence in arts, science, literature, and warfare, were the road to distinction, the Greeks shone the first of patriots, of heroes, of painters, of poets, and of philosophers; now that craft and subtilty, adulation and intrigue, are the only path to greatness, these same Greeks are-what you see them.'"

Perhaps the most singular feature in the Greek revolution is, that during the five years which it has now been proceeding, it has produced no one man of sufficient talent to take either a civil or a military lead in its affairs. In consequence of this, the councils of its armies and its legislature are composed of men of mediocre talent, and are filled with intrigue, with faction, and disunion; whence, of course, the most disastrous consequences have ensued. To go no father back than the present year, those quarrels, and their results, have been the cause that the fortress of Patras is still in the hands of the enemy. The necessity of retaining all their forces for its reduction, in the beginning of the campaign, after the rebellion of the Moreots had prevented its capture during the winter, was the cause of the absence of the fleet, at the moment when the Egyptians made their unmolested debarkations at Navarino. Late in the summer, the discussion of the Roumeliots and Moreots occasioned the departure of the former farm Navarino, at a moment when their presence was of material service in crippling the attempts of the enemy on the fortress; and was, doubtless, instrumental in hastening its fall. Add to this, the lives lost and the resources expended in quelling the insurrection in the winter, the confusion and disunion occasioned by the late factions of the French party in the Government, and the spirit of animosity which such scenes must ever foment,-and we have imagined but a part of its effects during one year.

John L. Comstock. History of the Greek Revolution Compiled from Official Documents of the Greek Government. (New York: 1829), pp. 366-369.