Greek Revolution of 1821

Roderick Beaton grew up in Edinburgh, where he first began to study (ancient) Greek at George Watson’s College. For thirty years until his retirement in 2018 he held the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King’s College London, and is now Emeritus. In 2021 he returned to his birthplace as A. G. Leventis Visiting Professor of Greek at The University of Edinburgh. He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Fellow of King’s College (FKC), and Commander of the Order of Honour of the Hellenic Republic. He is currently Chair of the British School at Athens. His most recent books are:The Greeks: A Global History (Faber, UK; Basic, USA, 2021), The Greek Revolution of 1821 and its Global Significance (Aiora, 2021), Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (Allen Lane/Penguin, 2019) and Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution (Cambridge University Press, 2013) Niels Gaul is the A. G. Leventis Professor of Byzantine Studies and Head of Classics at the University of Edinburgh. His recent books include The Greek Revolution of 1821: European Contexts, Scottish Connections (2024), co-edited with Roderick Beaton, and The Post-1204 Byzantine World: New Directions and Novel Approaches (2026), co-edited with Mike Carr and Yannis Stouraitis.

The Greek Revolution of 1821: European Contexts, Scottish Connections is a staggering testament to just how international the Greek War of Independence was: in its origins, vision, scope and consequences. The volume's penetrating and interconnected essays add new layers of understanding to how the Greek revolution reverberated throughout Europe and beyond, even as the in-depth exploration of its uniquely Scottish connections reveals a compelling chapter of European intellectual history. There is much of interest -- and surprise -- here for the expert and relative newcomer alike.

• List of IllustrationsEditors’ PrefaceNotes on ContributorsIntroduction: Greek and Scottish Identities from the Enlightenment to the ‘Age of Revolution’, Roderick BeatonPART I: EUROPEAN CONTEXTS1. ‘Unspoken Assumptions’: Prophecies and Rumours in the Age of Greek Independence, Richard Clogg2. Russia’s Byzantine Heritage: Sixteenth-Century Myths and Eighteenth-Century Realities, Lucien Frary3. Translating the French Revolution: People, Commitments, Texts, Method, Sanja Perovic4. ‘The Grand Sacrifice’: Violence and Revolution in Adamantios Korais’s Asma Polemistirion (1800), Simos Zenios5. The Philiki Etaireia and Freemasonry: Secret Communication, the Public Sphere and Social Ideas, Julia Chatzipanagioti-SangmeisterPART II: SCOTTISH CONNECTIONS6. ‘Finer than the Acropolis’: Edinburgh, the Parthenon and the Scottish Genius, Matteo Zaccarini7. ‘A faithless truant to the classic page’: Sir Walter Scott, Greek, Greece and the Greeks, Iain Gordon Brown8. Through ‘the Eye of an Experienced Traveller’: Robert Wilson (1787–1871) in Ottoman and Revolutionary Greece, Alexia Petsalis-Diomidis9. Thomas Gordon and the Ghost of Tripolitsa: A Study in Private Conflict and Public Relations, Alasdair C. Grant10. George Finlay and the Greek Revolution of 1821: Scottish Enlightenment and Transnational Liberalism in Revolutionary Europe, Michalis Sotiropoulos11. George Finlay, the Founding Figures of Greek National Historiography and Iconoclast Emperor Leon III: Byzantine Paratexts of Revolution, Niels Gaul12. Edward Masson: Caledonian Witness to the Fortunes of Modern Greece, Vassiliki Kolocotroni13. John Stuart Blackie and the Pronunciation of Ancient Greek, Gonda Van SteenAfterword14. Parallel Lives at the Limits of Europe: Enlightenment and Nation-Building in Scotland and Greece, Paschalis M. KitromilidesIndex