My children!
On this land, that I walk today, men wise have walked and conversed in the old times, men with which I am not worthy of comparison, not even capable of reaching their trails. I wanted to see you my children, in the great glory of our ancestors, and I have come to say everything I observed during the time of struggle and before as well as afterwards; and on this we shall make conclusions for your future hapiness, even if God is the only one who knows the future. And for the old days whatever knowledge they accomplished, and glory and honour they had amongst the other nations of their time, whatever heroes, generals and politicians they had, for all this every day your teachers are telling you. I am not adequate. I can only say that they were wise and that from here the other nations took and borrowed their wisdom.
On this land, that we live in, used to live old Greeks, from who we decend and got this name (Hellenes). They differed in religion, because they bowed before wood and stone. Afterwards Christ came and all nations believed in his Gospel and stopped worshiping idols. He didnt take with him wise and refined men but simple people, villagers and fishermen and with the help of the Holy Ghost they learned all languages of the world, who, even if they had to face opposition and kings and tyrrants that chased them, noone could cause them harm. They founded the Belief.
The old Greeks, our ancestors, fell in dissension and started getting at each other's throats, and thats how Romans first and other barbarians later got the chance to subdue them. Afterwards the Muslims came and tried everything they could to force our people to change their faith. They cut off the tongues of many people, but even so it was impossible to do. One lost his tongue and the other would do the sign of the cross on his chest. When the sultan saw this, he appointed a viceroy and gave him the authorities/power of the church.He and the rest of the people did whatever the sultan commanded. Afterwards the potentates came everywhere. The third class, the merchants and educated people, the best part of the citizens, not being able to suffer the occupation fled, the educated took the ideal of Greece and moved from Greece and thus the people deprived from the media of refinement, fell in horrible state, which worsened day by day; because if someone amongst the people existed with little education, he had luck and privileges or was dragged by the European merchant as his helper or became an educated help for the potentate. And some not able to cope suffering from the tyrrany of the Turk and seeing the glory and the pleasures that they enjoyed, they lost their faith converting to Islam. And in every way, the people starved and got poorer.
In this unhappy situation, some of the educated fugitives, translated and sent books to Greece, and in these people we owe gratitude, because none of the people received the common education, but read these books and saw who were our ancestors, the deeds of Themistocles, Aristeides and other many of our ancients and saw in which situation we were then. Thereafter, it came into our minds to immitate them and become happier. And thus we created and developed the Hetaireia (The Philike Hetaireia, a secret organisation formed by Greeks abroad to pave the way for the revolution).
When we decided for the Revolution, we did not take into consideration how many we were or how much weaponry we had, neither the fact that Turks held the castles and the cities nor any of our rational minded said ''Why are you going to fight with wheat merchant ships'', but like rain fell upon all of us the desire of freedom, and all, the common people and the potentates and the captains and the educated ones and the merchants, small and big, we all agreed to this cause and made the Revolution.
In our first year, we had unity and we all acted in unison. One went to war, his brother would bring wood, his wife would make bread, his child would carry the bread and weaponry to the battlefield and if this unity held two more years we would' ve taken Thessaly and Macedonia and maybe we would ve reached Contantinople. Thats how much we scared off the Turks, whenever they heard of Greeks they fled miles away. One hundred Greeks would make five thousand of them run and one ship an entire armada...
I, my children, unfortunetly because of these circumstances, have remained uneducated and for this I ask for your forgiveness, because I do not talk like your teachers. I told you what I saw, heard and learned, so that you may benefit from the bygones and know the sad effects of dissent, from which you should turn away from, and strive to unite. Do not encumber us anymore. Our work and time has passed. And the days of our generation, which paved the way, will be almost over. The daylight of our lives will be followed by death's darkness, for as in the day of Holy Spirits, night will be followed by tomorrow's day. It falls upon you to fix this country and enrich these lands that we freed; and for that to happen, you have to have the foundations of the society, unity, religion, educated King and rational freedom.
I end my speech. Long live our King Otto! Long live our wise teachers! Long live Greek youth! ''
Kolokotrones weapons?
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Originally Posted by Nik
