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History
 The
island of the mythical king Pelopas (the etymology of "Peloponnese"), from
Myceneae and Corinth to Sparta and Mistra, has seen more than its share of
history. This is where Paris stole Helen from King Menelaos and where
Agamemnon set forth with his fleet to besiege Troy. It is the land where the
athletic spirit of Olympiads was created and where ancient city-states
flourished, becoming the very hart of what is known to the world as the
marvel of the Greek civilisation. From the 8th century B.C. onward, the
Peloponnesian city-states of Argos, Corinth, Sparta and several others, were
among those that broadened Greek horizons of knowledge by establishing
colonies and trade stations throughout the Mediterranean.
 United the Greek
cities defeated the invading armies of the Persian Empire on several
occasions (early 5th century BC), but their growth led to rivalries and
conflicts. Wars between cities culminated with the destructive Peloponnesian
War (431-404 BC), which sucked in it most the ancient Greek world, including
Southern Italy and Sicily, Cyprus and the Asia Minor. Sparta was the victor,
but regardless of outcome the civil wars had weakened the city-states,
making their submission an easier task for the rising power of the
Macedonian Kingdom (338 BC). The Romans in 146 BC dissolved the Achaean
Confederation, the last standing Greek alliance, and the whole region became
a roman province. By the 4th century AC, raiding parties of Goths and Slavs
were reaching beyond the Isthmus of Corinth pillaging and destroying what
was left of ancient Greece. The Byzantines gradually adopted the name "Moreas"
for the Peloponnese, which remained in use for many centuries, well into the
modern era.
 The Franks, dissolving the Byzantine Empire in 1204, managed in
short time to subdue the whole of the Peloponnese, apart from the domain of
the Byzantine lords of Mystras. The heavily fortified hills of Mystras where
the source of the regenerated Byzantine state which was to last for a couple
more centuries. For more than 30 years the Byzantines resisted the Turkish
raids along the walls of Isthmus, before being completely overrun in 1458,
dismayed by the fall of Constantinople four years earlier. The modern era of
Greece starts from the Peloponnese. In March 1821, the local chieftains
supported by Greek intellectuals from abroad, organised an uprising against
the Ottoman Empire, which ended in 1829 with the creation of a small
independent Greek state. Nafplion was the first capital and the Peloponnese
was once again the heart of Greece. |
