Från Bob Barrows bok om Mani som jag tipsade om:
There had been many refugees in the Mani over the years but the most influential were the Byzantine families who came to the area after the collapse of Mistras. An elite known as the ‘Nyklians’ rose to supremacy and various families developed fortified enclaves which either controlled the entire village or adjoined a similar enclave of another Nyklian family within the village. The barren landscape was unable to support the population and for the next four hundred years the clans fought bloody feuds for control of the meagre resources and to dominate their locality.
The intensity and ferocity of these feuds resulted in the unique architecture ‘The Tower Houses’ which dominate so many of the villages in the Deep or ‘Mesa’ Mani. A description of the lifestyle that led to the development of the towers was recorded by A.G. Guillet in 1676:
“As each one is a veiled enemy of everyone else and usually the closest neighbour the worst enemy, each night one member of the family stands guard on the roof of the dwelling. Otherwise the neighbour comes over on purpose, lifts a tile and makes an opening to shoot those who are sleeping. Cases are known where someone found the opportunity to dig a hole under his enemy’s house they filled it with gunpowder like an explosive charge and blew up the entire family.”
The feuds were conducted according to established rules and the main objective was to kill as many of the opposing family’s men as possible and wipe them out or force them to surrender. To do this in a closely confined village, one family would try to build their tower higher than their opponent’s and using muskets, cannons and rocks – try to smash the marble roofs of their houses and effectively neutralise them.
The Maniats themselves acquired a reputation for ferocity and courage that was second to none and every man was always armed with as many weapons as he could manage. In 1600, a French traveller described them as follows:
”These mountain dwellers are so laden with weapons that they look like hedgehogs. A huge sword is not enough for them, they carry a gun on their shoulder and in their hands they hold an axe, a club and a short spear.” In addition, they often carried two or three primed pistols in their waist sashes.