Career
Due to his fighting prowess, he was known as Tourkofagos (Greek: Τουρκοφάγος), literally means "Turk-Eater". The date and place of Nikitaras" birth are disputed, but he is thought to have been born either in the village of Nedoussa (Νέδουσα) in the Peloponnesian province of Messenia or in Leontari in Arcadia circa 1784. He was a nephew of Theodoros Kolokotronis, the most important Greek military leader of the Revolution.
When the Greek war of Independence began, both returned to the mainland.
He was with Kolokotronis, who commanded the Greek army at the Siege of Tripoli early in the war. When the commander and his men tried to escape the city, Nikitaras and his troops cut off the escape of the Turkish commander and his troops and slaughtered them.
Nikitaras was a strong patriot, not corrupt like many of the leaders of the Revolution. He also refused to take booty after battle, a normal practice of Balkan irregulars at the time.
After the Revolution he and his family were living in poverty.
He was also a strong campaigner for the rights of those who fought in the Revolution. Nikitaras was released from prison in 1841, but the period in jail broke his health and he died in 1849 in Piraeus. He is especially famous for his words during the Third Siege of Missolonghi.
When he arrived in the city with supplies, soldiers, who had not been paid in months, asked him if he had brought any money.
Nikitaras, angry, flung down his sword, a weapon taken from a Turk he had killed, uttering the words: "I have only my sword, and that I gladly give for my country." Nikitaras is remembered in the poem by Nikos Gatsos, "The Knight and Death".
