Limberakis Gerakaris

Who was Limberakis Gerakaris?

Liverios Gerakaris Gerakarakos was a Maniot pirate who later became Bey of Mani.

Limberakis Gerakaris was born in Mani in around 1644. He served as a rower in a Venetian galley before becoming a pirate. After several years, he was captured by the Ottomans and imprisoned. After a failed attempt to capture Mani, the Ottoman Grand Vizier, Köprülü Fazıl Ahmed Pasha, offered Gerakaris his freedom and to make him Bey of Mani in return for allowing the Turks to garrison some castles in Mani.

In his brief reign, he forced several families to flee from the Mani. He soon returned to piracy and was imprisoned was again by the Ottomans. However, when the Venetians invaded the Peloponnese in 1685, the Ottomans released Gerakaris and made him ruler of Mani and in return he promised to fight for the Turks. When the Turks unsuccessfully attempted to poison him, he defected to the Venetians, who acknowledged him as Bey of Mani. In 1696, he sacked Arta as the citizens of the city had burned his property nearby. The Artans complained to the Venetian Doge, who had him imprisoned in Brescia, where he died in 1710.