A Letter from Jean-Pierre Boyer to Greek Revolutionaries
An edition and reading of a document long known in Greek historiography and almost nowhere else: Boyer's reply of 15 January 1822 to four Greek exiles in Paris who were canvassing support for the war against the Ottomans. The editors reconstruct the committee around Adamantios Korais, explain how the text survives in Ioannis Filemon's archive of the Greek revolution, and translate it from that Greek version. Boyer declines to send money, citing the budget and the cost of absorbing the eastern part of the island, and offers instead an argument about kinship between the two struggles, both of them risings by people long held in servitude. The commentary dwells on his classical references, Leonidas, Miltiades, Marathon and Salamis, reading them as a deliberate choice of elected commanders and volunteer citizen-soldiers that matches the distinction between citizen and subject Boyer presses on his correspondents.
Sideris, E. G., & Konsta, A. A. (2005). A Letter from Jean-Pierre Boyer to Greek Revolutionaries. Journal of Haitian Studies, 11(1), 167-171.