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by paganel 929 days ago
I can also confirm this.

I've driven by car from Bucharest to Methoni (at the South-Western tip of the Peloponnese) this past autumn and early on during the trip I started counting the battle-places I was passing by: Giurgiu and the 1812 war between Tsarist Russia and the Ottomans, Pleven and the 1878 war between the same Tsarist Russia and the Ottomans, driving down towards Thessaloniki I was thinking about the cemeteries of Western WW1 soldiers located nearby, I spent my night somewhere between Kozani and Ioannina, in Northern Greece, which had been a very active front in the Greek Civil War, next day I passed close to Missolonghi, passed on the magnificent bridge at Patras close to where the Lepanto battle had taken place, and then on to the Peloponnese and Methoni itself. But not before passing close to the ancient Old Navarino castle nearby Pylos, the same Pylos where the naval Battle of Pylos took place during the Peloponnesian War, shortly followed by the Battle of Sphacteria. And Methoni itself was the location of three battles [1] involving the Venetians and the Ottomans.

And then, on my way back, I visited the exceptional Mystras Archeological Site [2], seeing Western Gothic architecture as a part of the Byzantine/East-Roman complex, in the middle of the Peloponnese, was really a very cool experience, highly recommend it.

Btw, speaking of the Slavs and the Southern Peloponnese and Mystras, the nearby mountains had been inhabited by this Slavic tribe back in the day, the Melingoi [3], I hadn't know that before physically visiting those places

> The Melingoi or Milingoi (Greek: Μηλιγγοί) were a Slavic tribe that settled in the Peloponnese in southern Greece during the Middle Ages.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Modon

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystras

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melingoi

1 comments

Well, if we talk about battles, they seem to be very common in whole of Europe, according to this map: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FAH3_cHXoAAgy22.jpg (taken from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HK5OsDWYJmQ)

Although I'm not sure if this isn't because Europe has more written history than the other places.

The other regions of Europe don’t include that big of a timespan, from 400-500 BCE to the contemporary era. The only exception is the Italian peninsula and its Northern region (the Po Plain). That’s what also made a guy like Byron to fight and die at Missolonghi, doing it on some desolate field in Northern France or present-day Belgium would have meant nothing for him.
Byron didn't fight there and died of disease, not combat.