THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE 1821 TO 1833 BY W.ALISON PHILLIPS 1897

62 THE WAR OF GREEK INDEPENDENCE
of the Greeks had been followed speedily by a series
of reverses. Diakos and the Bishop of Salona, who,
after the capture of Levadia, had advanced to Thermopylae,
were here defeated, on the 5th of May, by
Khurshid's lieutenants, Omer Yrioni and Mehemet.
Diakos and the Bishop were both captured and executed
;
and the victorious pashas pressed on across the
defiles of Mount Oeta.
At the Khan of Gravia they
were intercepted by the famous captain of Armatoli,
Odysseus, who was compelled to retire, after a stubborn
resistance. The Ottomans now recaptured Levadia,
burnt it to the ground, and inflicted another defeat
on Odysseus at Scripu.
Instead, however, of advancing
at once to the relief of the Acropolis, they
wasted a month in inaction, and allowed time for the
Greeks to recover.
All the attempts of the insurgents
to capture the Acropolis had hitherto failed; and, save
for the scarcity of water, the fortress would have been
impregnable.
As it was, it held out until the rumour of
the Ottoman advance spread a panic among the besiegers,
who rapidly melted away; and on the 30th of
June, Omer Vrioni, at the head of some two thousand
troops, relieved the garrison, after a blockade of eigBtythree
days.
Meanwhile Mehemet Pasha had been awaiting at
Thebes the arrival of strong reinforcements before be-