I'm sorry but I have no idea what episode you're referring to. Kolokotronis liberated Tripolitsa, then marched on Nafplio and ran over the force of Dramali pasha at Dervenakia.
See page 204, Mazower, The Greek Revolution, 1821 and the making of modern Europe. Panos Kolokotronis’ widow took up with Grivas which (among other things) set off fighting with the Rumeliotes (which the book details in other places, not sparing Grivas either)
NB: I didn't mean that he turned aside from Tripolitsa, I meant I was leaving the subject aside.
You'll have to forgive me, but I don't have Mazower at hand. In any case, I don't know the episode you're referring to but the constant strife in the Greek ranks during the Revolution is well known. It doesn't change the fact that Kolokotronis dealt a serious blow to the might of the Empire at Dervenakia.
It also doesn't change the ridiculousness of the expression "real men" used by the OP particularly in the context in which it was used.
Btw, "selimthegrim", hm? I guess we all have our national heroes... Too bad that they usually killed each other.
I'm not Turkish, but I should probably change that name if it makes people think I am.
Kolokotronis comes in for a bit more criticism on page 85 when a snotty remark about the Greek people is attributed to him, and later someone tells D. Ypsilantis to kill him, but he is nowhere near the worst figure in the book by a long shot.
Oh! Sorry for assuming. Nothing wrong with being Turkish, just to be clear.
I think Kolokotronis is the one figure from the Revolution that gives everyone the warm fuzzies in Greece. I've been to Nafplio as a child and shown the cell he was in, and told that a big hole in the wall was were he was digging himself out (probably apocryphal). To me he's dear because one of my ancestors was one of his chieftains (Giorgos Karachalios, executed by the Ottomans in the siege of Mega Spilaion, skinned alive according to family lore) and because I read his autobiography also as a kid.
Like I say, we all have our heroes...
> NB: I didn't mean that he turned aside from Tripolitsa, I meant I was leaving the subject aside.
And thanks for that, because that one really hurts.
