162 years ago today, on July 27, 1864, Dimitrios Plapoutas died in the family tower of Paloumba, Arcadia. He was 78 year...

162 years ago today, on July 27, 1864, Dimitrios Plapoutas died in the family tower of Paloumba, Arcadia. He was 78 years old, a decorated general of the Greek Revolution, a senator, and a man who had once been sentenced to death by the very state he helped create. Plapoutas was born in 1786 into a family of klephts and armatoloi in the Peloponnese. At just 17 he married Stekoulia Kolokotroni, niece of Theodoros Kolokotronis, and the two men would fight side by side for the rest of the revolution. Plapoutas had already fled Ottoman persecution twice before 1821, once in 1811 and again in 1819, taking refuge in the Ionian Islands each time. It was in Zakynthos that he joined the Filiki Etairia, the secret society organizing the Greek uprising. During the revolution, Plapoutas fought under Kolokotronis in nearly every major operation. Valtesi, Lala, Tripolitsa, Maniaki, Acrocorinth, Patras, Dervenakia. He was promoted to general in 1823 and earned a reputation for both courage and judgment that was uncommon on the battlefield. After liberation, the political climate turned vicious. During the regency of young King Otto, Plapoutas and Kolokotronis were arrested in 1833, tried before a military court in Nafplio, and condemned to death in May 1834 on charges of treason and attempting to overthrow the government. Two of the judges, Tertsetis and Polyzoidis, refused to sign the verdict. The public outrage that followed was so intense that the death sentences were commuted to 20 years in prison. When Otto came of age in 1835, both men were amnestied. Plapoutas went on to serve in the National Assembly of 1843, was elected MP for Karytaina from 1844 to 1847, and served as a senator until 1862. In 1858, King Otto named him honorary aide-de-camp. The man who helped liberate Greece outlived his death sentence by 30 years. #GreekHistory #GreekRevolution #OnThisDay