1. Public safety after the 1830’s
The establishment of the Greek state and the adoption of centrally organized institutions of “western” type caused many profound changes to the areas it incorporated. These developments meant, among other things, the creation of a legal framework that defined, in a regulatory way, the distinction between legality and illegality. They also meant the domination of a modern concept about the organization of the army, the preservation of public safety, the prevention of brigandage and the enforcement of law and order. Thus, in the mountainous provinces of Central Greece –where brigandage was endemic and, before the Greek War of Independence, was fought by the armed bands known as armatoloi and not the Ottoman authorities- public safety was assigned to the regular army, as well as centrally organized and controlled forces, such as the orofylaki (border army), the National Guard (ethnofylaki) and the Gendarmerie (chorofylaki).
These changes did not limit the phenomenon of brigandage. The presence of armed groups which were looting usually remote villages –in periods of exacerbation of the phenomenon even in towns, such as Thebes and Livadia- and committed kidnappings for ransom was one of the most serious problems the Greek state had to resolve during the 19th century. The first major campaign for the persecution of brigands in Central Greece was in 1834-1835, but without important results. Similar operations were repeated in the following decades, but with only temporary results. After the departure of the military forces from an area, more brigands appeared, until a new military campaign would once again limit their action, for a little while.
2. Brigandage in Greece in the 19th century
The main causes explaining the rise of the phenomenon of brigandage are the following:
1)The dissolution of the military forces of the war period. The centralized organization of the regular army, the rules of training (e.g. military discipline), the military regulations, the military ranks, the uniforms (the so-called “stena”(tights) and the weaponry (weapons with bayonets) created a “military environment” completely different and largely incompatible with the experience of the traditional armed forces in Central Greece. These developments excluded a very large part of the captains and soldiers of the war of independence, who were carrying the tradition of klephts and armatoloi.For the majority, that didn’t join the new army forces and had no other skill than being mercenaries, the problem of survival was exigent and the options very limited. They could, of course, try to adjust to a peaceful rurallife. But the most suitable options were either to cross the borders in order to claim their appointment as armatoloi from the Ottoman authorities, or to remain within the Greek borders and become brigands or/and rebels.
2)The depreciation with which the Greek authorities faced the soldiers of the war, at least as the last ones believed. They considered, especially during the decade 1833-1843, that the reward (appointments, ranks, salaries etc) was not equivalent to their contribution to the war. The widespread sense of injustice pushed many of them to “get to the mountains” and organize rebellions, in order to claim their rights. To confront them, the Greek authorities recruited other captains of the army of the revolutionary period.
3)The borders and the difference between the criminal law of Greece and the Ottoman Empire. The different ways of confronting the phenomenon of brigandage helped it develop. The disagreement and mutual distrust did not allow a long-term coordinated pursuit of brigands, but only an occasional one. Thus, the borderline turned into an advantage for the brigands, who used the one territory as a base for raids into the other or as a safe haven when they were persecuted. Also, the irredentist policy of Greece, aiming to a military occupation of the neighboring provinces of the Ottoman side from groups of “volunteers” and local chieftains, gave the brigands the opportunity to help with the riots that were unofficially and conspiratorially organized by the Greek State (e.g. 1854, 1878). The suppression of the irredentist riots augmented the number of brigands – the same thing happened with the military mutinies of the decades 1830 and 1840.
4)The policy of the Greek state towards the periodically migrant semi-nomadic populations. The limitations and difficulties that faced the populous and wealthy until the revolution semi-nomadic communities (e.g. laws for obligatory establishment, taxes etc) contributed to this development. These communities kept long established symbiotic relations to the traditional armed groups and fed the klephts and armatoloi of the pre-revolutionary period. It is no coincidence that the percentage of brigands coming from semi- nomadic families was overwhelmingly higher than other social categories, as indicated by the evidence available from the trials of brigands in the 19th century.
3. “Social Brigandage”
All the above can generally describe the developments that kept brigandage alive during the first decades after the establishment of the Greek state. It should, however, be noted that the practices and activities that are characterized (by the state) as “predatory” are part of a broader phenomenon: the processes and the transformations of the Greek society during its transition from a traditional to a modern political-institutional framework. The implementation of a new legal and law enforcement framework, strange and hostile to the mountainous rural communities, which abolished the local centres of power (e.g. community system, armatoloi) and penalized the traditional mechanisms that balanced and solved the local differences (e.g. blood feud), brought together the mountain communities with the brigands, who shared the same waywardness towards the institutions and mechanisms of the modern state.
The reputation of the brigands, e.g. band chief Christos Davelis, especially in mountainous areas, the admiration (but also the fear) that people felt towards them, and the folk songs that praised their exploits or mourned their death, make a strong casethat the brigands of the 19th century can be understood in relation to similar phenomena and practices, that were categorized under the term “social brigandage” by the British historian Eric Hobsbawm.
4. Brigandage in Boeotia
The year 1870 is a milestone for brigandage in the post-revolutionary Boeotia. The Dilesi Incident, or else the Massacre of Dilesi, that is the kidnapping of English and Italians travellers, and the persecution of the brigands, during which the hostages were murdered, was a fact with great impact inside the country and its international relations. It caused an international outcry, the trial and condemnation of the Greek state, and led to a more systematic way of confronting brigandage.
It has benn mentioned that the first appearance of a large number of brigands, as well as the first big effort to confront them, took place in 1834-1845. The riots in 1836-37 reanimated the groups of brigands in the -inaccessible to many but hospitable to the armed groups- mountains of Parnassos, Elikon, Kithairon, Parnitha and in general the mountains in Boeotia and around it. The revolution of 1843 and the first period of Ioannis Kolettis’s governance (1844-1857) are considered recessionary times for brigandage. The uprisings of 1847-1848, in which several known chieftains of the eastern Central Greece and also brigands, either on the side of rebels or on the side of their persecutors, gave a new impulse to brigandage. The same thing happened after the suppression of the irredentist uprisings of 1854.The chieftain Davelis, for example, seems to have taken part in the uprising of Thessaly and with his return to the Greek territory he turned again to brigandage. Many other brigands and volunteers in the uprisings did the same thing, and this explains the augmentation of brigandage after 1854. Georgios Drolias, Giannis Pallas, Mitros Fonias, Kakarapis (Loukas Beloulias), Vasilis Kalambalikis, Evangelis Spanos, Karathanasis (Athanasios Chortarias), Davelis (Christos Natsos) are some of the brigands of that turbulent period that acted in Boeotia and neighboring areas. The looting and massacre in Livadia as well as the failed attempt of many brigands to kill the officer whose responsibility was to fight them were some of the incidents of that time. Some of the villages that were attacked, looted, burned and their inhabitants killed or kidnapped were Agios Georgios (of Petra), Mouriki, Moni Pelagias and Valta. The extent of the phenomenon was such that the state reconstructed the mechanisms for persecuting the brigands. The orofylaki was dissolved and fighting brigandage became a responsibility of the Gendarmerie. Thus, in 1855 sections of 120-130 soldiers were settled in Livadia and Thebes (and the neighbouring Parnassida). Transitional contingents ran around the mountainous passages that the brigands used, that is the same routes that were used by klephts and armatoloi in the past.Chief brigand Davelis and most of the brigands of that period were killed by the end of the 1850s.
The uprisings against King Otto and his expulsion in 1862, the political instability until 1864 and the Cretan revolt (1866-1869) once again sparkled brigandage. For example, in 1869 an armed group kept robbing for several hours the people passing by the street that connected Atalanti with Livadia. More than 150 travellers were robbed during that incident. In 1870, the Member of the Parliament representing Livadia, Filon Filotas, was kidnapped by brigands Kamaras, Papoutis, Fousekis and others, and was released after ransom was paid. The same year, the kidnapping of foreign travellers from the group of Arvanitakis brothers and Spanos, the murder of hostages in Dilesi and the international outcry against Greece led to tough and decisive measures against brigandage. This, along with the change of borders in 1881 (annexation of Thessaly), moved the problem of brigandage further north: to the new borderline between Greek Thessaly and still Ottoman, at that time, Macedonia. Since then, brigandage in eastern Central Greece was significantly reduced, although never completely eliminated. Small groups of brigands (e.g. Kontogiannis, Karathanasis, Kotsadam etc.) were still on the mountains of the area until the first decades of the 20th century.