Meletis Vasileiou

Meletis Vasileiou (; c. 1778–1826) from Chasia in Attica was a leader of the Greek War of Independence who contributed a lot to the organization of the revolutionary forces in Attica.

Biography

An Arvanite, Vasileiou was born in about 1778 in Chasia and was a member of a poor family of farmers. As a man with a great influence, he managed to secure privileges for the area that suffered under Ottoman misrule. Furthermore, he was a member of the Filiki Eteria, a secret 19th-century organization whose purpose was to overthrow the Ottoman rule of Greece and establish an independent Greek state.

With the outbreak of the revolution, he managed to get permission to recruit men by tricking the Ottoman authorities pretending being loyal to them. On 18 April 1821 in Kalamos in Attica he fought the Ottoman troops coming from Euboea. During the summer of the same year, a serious dispute broke out between Vasileiou and the elders of Athens concerning the military leadership of Attica, The situation appeared to smooth temporarily after the intervention of Demetrios Ypsilantis and the dispatch of the Vasileiou and his men to Boeotia.

From 1822 until 1825 Vasileiou was gradually promoted to the grades of deputy chiliarch, chiliarch and eventually taxiarch.

In May 1826 Meletis Vasileiou was murdered by his compatriots, who in the raid of Omer Pasha of Karystos in Attica rushed to declare their surrender to him, due to a disagreement with the commandant of the Acropolis, Yannis Gouras.