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MAINA (or MANI)

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 432 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAINA (or MANI) and MAINOTES, a See also:district and See also:people of the See also:Peloponnesus, the See also:modern Morea. Maina is the See also:country occupied by the See also:mountain range of See also:Taygetus from See also:Sparta to Cape Matapan, the See also:ancient Taenarum. It is now divided between the modern districts Oetylos and Gythion. Before the organization of the See also:present See also:kingdom of See also:Greece, Maina was subdivided into "EEco Mavr7, See also:Outer Maina, from the frontier of See also:Kalamata, on the Gulf of See also:Messenia, to Vitylo (Oetylos) and inland to,the See also:summit of Taygetus; KarcaMavr7, See also:Lower Maina, from Vitylo to Cape Matapan; and MEOa Mav17, or Inner Maina, on the See also:east, and on the Gulf of See also:Laconia as far as the See also:plain of Elos. It contained over a See also:hundred villages. The country is mountainous and inaccessible, a formation to which it owes its See also:historical importance. The Mainotes claim to descend from the Spartans, and probably represent the Eleuthero, or See also:free, Laconians who were delivered by See also:Rome from the See also:power of Sparta, as is suggested by the traces of ancient See also:Greek in their See also:dialect and by their See also:physical type. Their country being a natural fortress, they were able to defend themselves against the See also:Byzantine emperors, the barbarians who See also:broke into the See also:empire, the Latin princes of See also:Achaea of the See also:house of See also:Villehardouin, and the See also:Turks. As their country is also poor and maritime, they were See also:early tempted to take to piratical See also:adventure. See also:Gibbon says that " in the See also:time of See also:Constantine Porphyrogenitus they had acquired the name of Mainotes, under which they dishonour the claim of See also:liberty by the inhuman pillage of all that is shipwrecked on their rocky See also:shore." Their neighbours gave their country the name of " Kakaboulia "—the See also:land of wicked counsels. The passes of their mountains were elaborately fortified and their villages were full of fortified towers which they formed their own favourite Polypyrgos—many-towered Maina. On the it also contains the remains of feudal by See also:William II. de Villehardouin (1245–1278) (pyrgoi) from epithet, Maina western See also:side keeps, erected and other Latin princes of Achaea.

The Mainotes did not become Christians till the 9th See also:

century. From the 15th till the 17th century they recognized a See also:family which claimed to belong to the Comneni of See also:Trebizond as See also:head chiefs. But the real power was in the hands of the chiefs of the different families and villages, who formed a turbulent and See also:martial See also:aristocracy. Enduring and ferocious feuds were See also:common among them. In the course of the 18th century the family of. Mavromicheli (See also:Black See also:Michael), which belonged to lower Maina, established a See also:general headship over the Mainotes after much strife and many murders. When See also:Russia endeavoured to promote a rising against the Turks in the Morea in 1770 the Mainotes acted with her, and the strength of their country enabled them to See also:escape the vengeance of the Turks when the Christians were cynically deserted by the Russians. In 1777 their See also:practical See also:independence was recognized by the See also:sultan's See also:officers. During the Greek See also:war of independence the Mainotes were chiefly led by Petros (Petro See also:Bey) Mavromicheli, known to his countrymen as the See also:king of Maina, who undoubtedly cherished the See also:hope of establishing a principality for himself. The freedom of Greece, for which he had fought in his own way, proved the ruin of his ambition. He found the new See also:order less compatible with his schemes than the See also:Turkish dominion. Petro Bey was imprisoned by the Greek See also:president Capodistrias (see See also:CAPO D'See also:ISTRIA, See also:COUNT), who was in revenge murdered by the Mavromichelis.

The family were finally content to become courtiers and officials in the reign of King See also:

Otto I. In the 19th century Maina was but little affected by See also:civilization, except in so far as the efficiency of modern navies debarred the Mainotes from their old resource of piracy. See W. See also:Martin See also:Leake, Travels in the Morea (183o) ; M. E. Yemeniz, " La Maina," in Revue See also:des deux mondes (See also:March 1, 1865); and Philipson, " Zur Ethnographie des Peloponnes," in Petermanns Mittheilungen, vol. 36 (See also:Gotha).

End of Article: MAINA (or MANI)

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