“It was a different journey for Logothetis Lycurgus and his companions. They set out on a fishing boat from their homeland of Samos and, crossing the archipelago, arrived in Nafplio. Lycurgus, appointed as the extraordinary commissioner of Laconia and Lower Messinia, met Governor Kapodistrias and received the appropriate instructions for his journey to the south of Morias.

Hiking with his men, he reached the troubled Mani, passing through significant ancient Greek cities and magnificent Byzantine monuments. He encountered peasants with rifles on their shoulders, women carrying their babies while working the land, and captains locked in their towers governing the wild region.

He conversed with the village elders, gave the appropriate orders to maintain peace among the residents, and arrived exhausted at his headquarters in Kalamata. Accompanying him was his fellow villager and contemporary Anagnostis, the great poet of Samos, who was searching for his roots, as he believed in his Maniot ancestry. He did not follow Lycurgus back to Samos, but remained forever on the slopes of Pentadactylos, wandering through the villages and seeking his kin.”