Morea expedition The Morea expedition ( ) is the name given in France to the land intervention of the French Army in the Peloponnese ( at the time often still known by its medieval name , Morea ) between 1828 and 1833 , at the time of the Greek War of Independence . After the fall of Messolonghi , Western Europe decided to intervene in favour of revolutionary Greece . Their attitude toward the Ottoman Empire ' s Egypt ian ally , Ibrahim Pasha , was especially critical ; their primary objective was to elicit the evacuation of the occupied regions , the Peloponnese in particular . The intervention began when a Franco - Russo - British fleet was sent to the region , winning the Battle of Navarino in October 1827 . In August 1828 , a French expeditionary corps disembarked at Koroni in the southern Peloponnese . The soldiers were stationed on the peninsula until the evacuation of Egyptian troops in October , then taking control of the principal strongholds still held by Turkish troops . Although the bulk of the troops returned to France from the end of 1828 , there was a French presence in the area up until 1833 . As during Napoleon ' s , when a Commission of Sciences and Arts had accompanied the military campaign , a " Morea scientific mission " ( " Mission scientifique de Morée " ) accompanied the troops . Seventeen learned men represented different specialties ( natural history and antiquities – archaeology , architecture and sculpture ) made the voyage . Their work was of major importance in increasing knowledge about the country . As an example , the topographic maps they produced were excellent . More significantly , the measurements , drawings , profiles , plans and proposals for the theoretical restoration of Peloponnesian monuments , of Attica and of the Cyclades were , following James Stuart and Nicholas Revett ' s " Antiquities of Athens " , a new attempt to systematically and exhaustively catalogue ancient Greek ruins . The Morea expedition and its publications offered a near - complete description of the regions visited . They formed a scientific , aesthetic and human inventory that remained one of the best means , short of visiting them in person , to get to know the regions . Context . Military and diplomatic context . In 1821 , the Greeks revolted against centuries - long Ottoman rule . They won numerous victories early on and declared independence . However , the declaration contradicted the principles of the Congress of Vienna and of the Holy Alliance , which imposed a European equilibrium of the status quo , outlawing any change . In contrast to what happened elsewhere in Europe , the Holy Alliance did not intervene to stop the liberal Greek insurgents . The liberal and national uprising displeased the Austria of Metternich , the principal political architect of the Holy Alliance . However , Russia , another reactionary gendarme of Europe , looked favorably on the insurrection due to its Orthodox religious solidarity and its geostrategic interest ( control of the Dardanelles and the Bosphorus ) . France , another active member of the Holy Alliance , had just intervened in Spain against liberals at Trocadero ( 1823 ) but held an ambiguous position : Paris saw the liberal Greeks first and foremost as Christians , and their uprising against the Muslim Ottomans had undertones of a new crusade . Great Britain , a liberal country , was interested in the regional situation primarily because it lay on the route to India and London wished to exercise a form of control there . For all of Europe , Greece represented the cradle of Western civilisation and of art since antiquity . The Greek victories had been short - lived . The Sultan had called to his aid his Egyptian vassal Muhammad Ali , who had dispatched his son Ibrahim Pasha to Greece with a fleet and 8 , 000 men , later adding a further 25 , 000 troops . Ibrahim ’ s intervention proved decisive : the Peloponnese had been reconquered in 1825 ; the gateway town of Messolonghi had fallen in 1826 ; Athens had been taken in 1827 . All that Greek nationalists still held was Nafplion , Hydra , Mani and Aegina . A strong current of philhellenism developed in Western Europe . Thus it was decided to intervene in favour of Greece , the cradle of civilisation and a Christian vanguard in the Orient whose strategic location was clear . By the Treaty of London of July 1827 , France , Russia and the United Kingdom recognised the autonomy of Greece , which remained a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire . The three powers agreed to a limited intervention in order to convince the Porte to accept the terms of the convention . A plan to send a naval expedition as a show of force was proposed and adopted . A joint Russian , French and British fleet was sent to exercise diplomatic pressure against Constantinople . The Battle of Navarino ( October 1827 ) , fought after a chance encounter , resulted in the destruction of the Turkish - Egyptian fleet . In 1828 , Ibrahim Pasha thus found himself in a difficult situation : he had just suffered a defeat at Navarino ; the joint fleet exercised a blockade which prevented him from receiving reinforcements and supplies ; his Albanian troops , whom he could no longer pay , had returned to their country under the protection of Theodoros Kolokotronis ’ Greek troops . On August 6 , 1828 , a convention had been signed at Alexandria between the viceroy of Egypt , Muhammad Ali , and the British admiral Edward Codrington . Ibrahim Pasha had to evacuate his Egyptian troops and leave the Peloponnese to the few Turkish troops ( estimated at 1200 men ) remaining there . However , Ibrahim Pasha refused to honor the agreement that had been reached , continuing to control various Greek regions : Messenia , Navarino , Patras and several other strongholds . He had also ordered the systematic destruction of Tripoli . In addition , the French government of Charles X was beginning to have doubts about its Greek policy . Ibrahim Pasha himself noted this ambiguity when he met General Maison in September : “ Why was France , after enslaving men in Spain in 1823 , now coming to Greece to make men free ? ” Eventually a liberal agitation , pro - Greek and inspired by what was then happening in that country , began to develop in France . The longer France waited , the more delicate her position vis - à - vis Metternich became . The ultra - royalist government thus decided to accelerate events . A land expedition was proposed to Great Britain , which refused to intervene directly . Meanwhile , Russia had declared war against the Ottoman Empire and its military victories were unsettling for London , which did not wish to see the Tsarist empire extend too far south . Thus Great Britain did not oppose an intervention by France alone . Intellectual context . Enlightenment philosophy had developed Western Europeans ’ interest in Greece , or rather in an idealised Ancient Greece , the linchpin of Antiquity , as it was perceived and taught . The Enlightenment philosophers , for whom the notions of Nature and Reason were so important , believed that these had been the fundamental values of Classical Athens . The Ancient Greek democracies , and above all Athens , became models to emulate . There they searched for answers to the political and philosophical problems of their time . Works such as those of Abbé Barthélemy , " Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis " ( 1788 ) , served to fix definitively the image that Europe had of the Aegean . The theories and system of interpreting ancient art devised by Johann Joachim Winckelmann influenced European tastes for decades . His major work , " History of Ancient Art " , was published in 1764 and translated into French in 1766 ( the English translation came later , in 1881 ) . In this major work Winckelmann initiated the tradition of dividing ancient art into periods , classifying the works chronologically and stylistically . The views of Winckelmann on art encompassed the entirety of civilisation . He drew a parallel between a civilisation ' s general level of development and the evolution of its art . He interpreted this artistic evolution the same way that his contemporaries saw the life cycle of a civilisation , in terms of progress , apogee and then decline . For him , Greek art had been the pinnacle of artistic achievement , culminating with Phidias . Further , Winckelmann believed that the most beautiful works of Greek art had been produced under ideal geographic , political and religious circumstances . This frame of thought long dominated intellectual life in Europe . He classified Greek art into four periods : Ancient ( archaic period ) , Sublime ( Phidias ) , Beautiful ( Praxiteles ) and Decadent ( Roman period ) . Winckelmann ’ s theories on the evolution of art culminated in the Sublime period of Greek art , which had been conceived during a period of complete political and religious liberty . The theories idealised Ancient Greece and increased people ’ s desire to travel to contemporary Greece . It was seductive to believe , as he did , that ' good taste ' was born beneath the Greek sky . He convinced 18th - century Europe that life in Ancient Greece was pure , simple and moral , and that classical Hellas was the source from which artists should draw ideas of “ noble simplicity and calm grandeur ” . Greece became the “ motherland of the arts ” and “ the teacher of taste ” . The French government had planned the Morea expedition in the same spirit as those of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett , whose work it wished to complete . The semi - scientific expeditions commissioned and financed by the Society of Dilettanti remained a benchmark : these represented the first attempts to rediscover Ancient Greece . The first , that of Stuart and Revett to Athens and the islands , took place in 1751 – 1753 , and resulted in " The Antiquities of Athens " , mined by architects and designers for a refined " Grecian " neoclassicism . The expedition of Revett , Richard Chandler and William Pars to Asia Minor took place between 1764 and 1766 . Finally , the “ work ” of Lord Elgin on the Parthenon at the beginning of the 19th century had sparked further longing for Greece : it now seemed possible to build vast collections of ancient art in Western Europe . Military expedition . Preparation . The Chamber of Deputies authorised a loan of 80 million gold francs to allow the government to meet its obligations . An expeditionary corps of 13 , 000 – 15 , 000 men commanded by Lieutenant - General Nicolas Joseph Maison was formed . It was composed of three brigades commanded by Field Marshals Tiburce Sébastiani , Philippe Higonet and Virgile Schneider . The Chief of the General Staff was General Antoine Simon Durrieu . < br > The expeditionary corps was made up of nine infantry regiments : Also departing were the 3rd horse chasseurs regiment ( commanded by Colonel Paul - Eugène de Faudoas - Barbazan ) , four companies of artillery ( with equipment for campaigns , sieges , and mountains ) of the 3rd and 8th artillery regiments , and two companies of military engineers ( sappers and miners ) . A transport fleet protected by warships was organised ; sixty ships sailed in all . Equipment , victuals , munitions and 1 , 300 horses had to be brought over , as well as arms , munitions and money for the Greek provisional government of John Capodistria . France wished to support free Greece as it came into being by helping it activate its army . The goal was of course to maintain influence in the region . The first brigade left Toulon on August 17 ; the second , two days later ; and the third on September 1 . The general in command , Nicolas Joseph Maison , was with the first brigade , aboard the ship of the line " Ville de Marseille " . The first convoy was composed of merchant ships and apart from the " Ville de Marseille " , it included the frigates " Amphitrite " , " Bellone " and " Cybèle " . The second convoy was escorted by ship of the line " Duquesne " and the frigates " Iphigénie " and " Armide " . Operations in the Peloponnese . Landing . On August 29 , the fleet transporting the two first brigades arrived in Navarino bay , where the joint Franco - Russo - British squadron was berthed . The Egyptian army was concentrated between Navarino and Methoni . Thus , the landing was risky . The fleet sailed toward the Gulf of Koroni protected by a fortress held by the Ottomans . The expeditionary corps began to disembark without meeting any opposition on the evening of August 29 , finishing on the morning of August 30 . A proclamation by governor Capodistria had informed the Greek population of the imminent arrival of a French expedition . The locals rushed up before the troops as soon as they set foot on Greek soil and offered them food . The French pitched camp in the plain of Koroni , near Petalidi , on the site of the ancient Coronea . The third brigade , which had borne up against a storm and lost three ships , managed to land at Koroni on September 16 . Departure of the Egyptian Army . Ibrahim Pasha used a number of pretexts to delay the evacuation : problems with food supply or transport , or unforeseen difficulties in the strongholds ’ handover . The French officers had difficulties in maintaining the fighting zeal of their soldiers , who for example had become excited at the ( false ) news that an imminent march on Athens would take place . This impatience on the part of the French troops was perhaps decisive in convincing the Egyptian commander to respect his obligations . Moreover , French soldiers were beginning to suffer from autumn rains which drenched their tent camp , increasing the likelihood of fever and especially of dysentery . On September 24 , Louis - Eugène Cavaignac wrote that thirty men of 400 in his company of military engineers were affected by fever . General Maison wished to be able to set up his men in the fortresses ’ barracks . On September 7 , Ibrahim Pasha accepted to evacuate his troops as of September 9 . The agreement reached with General Maison provided that the Egyptians would leave with their arms , baggage and horses , but without any Greek slave or prisoner . As the Egyptian fleet could not evacuate the entire army in one go , supplies were authorised for the troops who remained on land ; these men had just undergone a lengthy blockade . A first Egyptian division , 5 , 500 men and 27 ships , set sail on September 16 , escorted by three ships from the joint fleet ( two English ones and the French frigate " Sirène " ) . The last Egyptian transport sailed away on October 5 , taking Ibrahim Pasha . Of the 40 , 000 men he had brought from Egypt , he was taking back barely 20 , 000 . A few Ottoman soldiers remained in order to hold the different strongholds of the Peloponnese . The next mission of the French troops was to “ give security ” to these and hand them back to independent Greece . Strongholds taken . On October 6 , General Maison ordered General Higonet to march on Navarino . He left with the 16th infantry regiment , which included artillery and military engineers . Thus , Navarino ’ s seacoast was put under siege by Admiral Henri de Rigny ’ s fleet and the land siege was undertaken by General Higonet ’ s soldiers . The Turkish commander of the fort refused to surrender : “ The Porte is at war with neither the French nor the English ; we will commit no hostile act , but we will not surrender the fort . ” Hence , the sappers received an order to open a breach in the walls . General Higonet entered the fortress , held by 250 men who surrendered with sixty cannons and 800 , 000 rounds of ammunition . The French troops moved in intending to remain for some time , building up Navarino ’ s fortifications , rebuilding its houses and setting up a hospital and various features of local administration . On October 7 , the 35th line infantry regiment , commanded by General Durrieu , accompanied by artillery and by military engineers , appeared before Methoni , defended by 1 , 078 men and a hundred cannons , and which had food supplies for six months . Two ships of the line , the " Breslaw " ( Captain Maillard ) and ( Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland ) blocked the port and threatened the fortress with their cannons . The fort ’ s commanders , the Turk Hassan Pasha and the Egyptian Ahmed Bey , made the same type of reply as had the commander of Navarino . Methoni ’ s fortifications were in a better state than those of Navarino . Thus the sappers focused on opening the city gate . The city ’ s garrison did not defend it . The commanders of the fort explained that they could not surrender it without disobeying the Sultan ’ s orders , but also recognised that it was impossible for them to resist . Thus the fort had to be taken , and least symbolically , by force . It was more difficult to take Koroni . General Sébastiani showed up there on October 7 with a party from his brigade . The fort commander ’ s response was similar to those given at Navarino and Methoni . Sébastiani sent his sappers , who were pushed back by rocks thrown from atop the walls . A dozen men were wounded , among them Cavaignac and , more seriously , a captain , a sergeant and three sappers . The other French soldiers felt insulted and their general had great difficulty in preventing them from opening fire and taking the stronghold by force . The " Amphitrite " , the " Breslaw " and the " Wellesley " came to the assistance of the ground troops . The threat they posed led the Ottoman commander to surrender . On October 9 , the French entered Koroni and seized 80 cannons and guns , along with numerous victuals and munitions . Patras had been controlled by Ibrahim Pasha since the evacuation of the Peloponnese . The third brigade had been sent by sea to take the city , located in the north - western part of the peninsula . It landed on October 4 . General Schneider gave Hajji Abdullah , Pasha of Patras and of the “ Morea Castle ” , twenty - four hours to hand over the fort . On October 5 , when the ultimatum expired , three columns marched on the city and the artillery was deployed . The Pasha immediately signed the capitulation of Patras and of the “ Morea Castle ” . However , the agha s who commanded the latter refused to obey their pasha , whom they considered a traitor , and announced that they would rather die in the ruins of their fortress than surrender . Siege of the " Morea Castle " . “ Morea Castle ” , called " Kastro Moreas " or " Kastelli " , today in ruins , guarded the entry to the Gulf of Corinth , near Rion . Bayezid II had built it in 1499 . General Schneider negotiated with the aghas , who persisted in their refusal to surrender . A siege was begun from in front of the fortress and fourteen marine and field guns , placed a little over 400 meters away , reduced the artillery of those under siege to silence . Admiral de Rigny had General Maison put all his artillery and sappers on board . By land Maison sent two infantry regiments and the 3rd light cavalry regiment . Reinforcements arrived on October 23 . New batteries nicknamed “ for breaching ” ( " de brèche " ) were installed . These received the names of Charles X , George IV , duc d ’ Angoulême , duc de Bordeaux and “ Marine ” . A party from the British fleet and under Captain Edmund Lyons , came to add their cannons . On October 30 , the batteries opened fire . In four hours , a breach was largely opened in the ramparts . Then , an emissary came out with a white flag to negotiate the terms of the fort ’ s surrender . General Maison replied that the terms had been negotiated at the beginning of the month at Patras . He added that he did not trust a group of besieged men who had not respected a first agreement to respect a second one . He gave the garrison half an hour to evacuate the fort , without arms or baggage . The aghas submitted . However , the fortress ’ resistance had cost 25 men , killed or wounded in the French expedition . The French in the Peloponnese . On November 5 , 1828 , the last “ non - Greeks ” ( Turks , Egyptians or Muslims generally ) left Morea . 2 , 500 Turks and their families were placed aboard French vessels headed for Smyrna . The French and British ambassadors had set themselves up at Poros and invited Constantinople to send a diplomat there so as to pursue negotiations over the status of Greece . The Porte persisted in refusing to participate in conferences . Hence , the French suggested continuing military operations and extending them into Attica and Euboea . The British opposed this plan . Thus it was left to the Greeks to drive out the Ottomans from these territories , with the understanding that the French army would only intervene if the Greeks found themselves in trouble . Gradually , Morea was evacuated of troops . The Schneider brigade , of which Cavaignac was a member , boarded ship in the first days of April 1829 . General Maison left on May 22 , 1829 . Only one brigade remained in the Peloponnese . Fresh troops came from France to relieve the soldiers present in Greece : thus , the 57th line infantry regiment landed at Navarino on July 25 , 1830 . France did not withdraw for good until after King Otto arrived in Greece in January 1833 . The French troops , commanded by General Charles Louis Joseph Olivier Guéhéneuc , did not remain idle during these nearly five years . Fortifications were raised , like those at Navarino . Bridges were constructed , such as those over the Pamissos River between Kalamata and Methoni . The Methoni - Navarino road was built , and improvements were made to Peloponnesian towns ( barracks , bridges , gardens , etc . ) . Military results of the expedition . The Ottoman Empire could no longer depend on Egyptian troops to hold Greece . The strategic situation now resembled that existing before 1825 and the landing of Ibrahim Pasha . Then , the Greek insurgents had triumphed on all fronts . After the Morea military expedition , the Greeks only had to face the Turkish troops in central Greece . Livadeia , gateway to Boeotia , was conquered at the beginning of November 1828 . A counterattack by Mahmud Pasha from Euboea was repulsed in January 1829 . In April , Naupactus was “ restored ” to the Greeks ; in May , Augustinos Kapodistrias recaptured the symbolic town of Messolonghi . However , it took the military victory of Russia and the Treaty of Adrianople before the independence of Greece was recognised . The Greek territories that had been liberated by September 1829 , a year after the Morea military expedition — the Peloponnese and central Greece — were those which would form independent Greece after 1832 . Scientific expedition . The Morea expedition was the second of the great military - scientific expeditions led by France in the first half of the 19th century . The first , used as a benchmark , had been the Egyptian one , starting in 1798 ; the last took place in Algeria from 1839 . All took place at the initiative of the French government and were placed under the guidance of a particular ministry ( Foreign relations for Egypt , Interior for Morea and War for Algeria ) . The great scientific institutions recruited learned men ( both civilians and from the military ) and specified their missions , but " in situ " work took place in close co - operation with the army . The Commission of Sciences and Arts from Napoleon ’ s Egyptian expedition , and especially the publications that followed , had become a model . As Greece was the other important “ ancient ” region considered as lying at the origin of Western civilisation ( one of the philhellenists ’ principal arguments ) , it was decided to “ take advantage of the presence of our soldiers who were occupying Morea to send a learned commission . It did not have to equal that attached to the glory of Napoleon [ … ] It did however need to render eminent services to the arts and sciences . ” In Egypt and Algeria , scientific work took place under the army ’ s protection . In Morea , most troops were departing when exploration had barely begun . The army was content to provide logistical support : “ tents , stakes , tools , liquid containers , large pots and sacks ; in a word , everything that could be found for us to use in the army ’ s storehouses . ” The members of the scientific expedition landed at Navarino on March 3 , 1829 , after 21 days at sea . Physical sciences section . This section included several sciences : botany ( Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint - Vincent , Louis Despreaux Saint - Sauveur and Antoine Vincent Pector ) , geography , geology ( Pierre Théodore Virlet d ’ Aoust and Émile Puillon Boblaye ) and zoology . The government insisted that a landscape artist also be sent , as Minister of the Interior Martignac had asked for one so as not to restrict the observations “ to flies and herbs , but to extend them to places and people . ” Geography . One of the first objectives fixed by the French government had been to draw precise maps of the Peloponnese , with a scientific purpose , but also for economic and military reasons . The Minister of War , the Vicomte de Caux , had written to General Maison on January 6 , 1829 : “ All the maps of Greece are very imperfect and were drawn up based on more or less inaccurate templates ; it is thus essential to fix them . Not only will geography be enriched by this research , but we will in the process support France ’ s commercial interests by making her relations easier , and it will above all be useful for our ground and naval forces , who may find themselves involved in this part of Europe . ” In two years , a very precise map , drawn on six sheets at a 1 / 200 , 000 scale , was produced . In March 1829 , a base of 3 , 500 meters had been traced in Argolis , from one angle at the ruins of Tiryns to an angle of a house in ruins in the village of Aria . This was intended to serve as a point of departure in all the triangulation operations for topographic and geodesic readings in the Peloponnese . Pierre Peytier and Puillon - Boblaye proceeded to perform numerous verifications on the base and on the rulers used . The margin of error was thus reduced to 1 meter for every 15 kilometer . The longitude and latitude of the base point at Tiryns were read and checked , so that again the margin of error was reduced as far as possible to an estimated 0 . 2 seconds . 134 geodesic stations were set up on the peninsula ’ s mountains , as well as on Aegina , Hydra and Nafplion . Thus , equilateral triangles whose sides measured about 20 km were drawn . The angles were measured with theodolites by Gambey . The geographers suffered from fever — Bory de Saint - Vincent ’ s team as much as that of Puillon - Boblaye : “ The horrible heat that beset us in July placed , for the rest , the entire topographic brigade in disarray . These gentlemen , having worked in the sun , have nearly all taken ill and eight days ago , we grieved to see M . Dechièvre die at Napoli eight days ago . ” ( Bory de Saint - Vincent ) “ Of twelve officers employed in the geodesic service , two are dead and all have been sick . Besides them , we have lost two sappers and a household servant . ” ( Puillon - Boblaye ) Botany and zoology . Jean Baptiste Bory de Saint - Vincent led the scientific expedition . Additionally , he made detailed botanical studies . He gathered a multitude of specimens : " Flore de Morée " ( 1832 ) lists 1 , 550 plants , of which 33 were orchids and 91 were grasses ( just 42 species had not yet been described ) ; " Nouvelle Flore du Péloponnèse et des Cyclades " ( 1838 ) described 1 , 821 species . In Morea , Bory de Saint - Vincent was content to collect plants . He proceeded to classify , identify and describe them upon his return to France . Then he was aided , not by his collaborators from Greece , but by Louis Athanase Chaubard , Jean - Baptiste Fauché and Adolphe - Théodore Brongniart . Similarly , the naturalists Étienne and Isidore Geoffroy Saint - Hilaire helped edit the expedition ’ s scientific works . As the gathering process went along , they sent the plants , as well as birds and fish , to France . The Morea expedition confirmed that the jackal existed in Greece . Although earlier travel narratives had mentioned its presence , these were not considered trustworthy . Moreover , the species seen and described by the French was endemic to the region . Bory de Saint - Vincent brought back pelts and a skull . Fine arts section . This section was formed by the Institut de France , which designated the architect Guillaume - Abel Blouet as its head . The Institut sent Amable Ravoisié , Pierre Achille Poirot , Frédéric de Gournay and Pierre Félix Trezel as his assistants . The architect Jean - Nicolas Huyot gave very precise instructions to this section . Of wide - ranging experience formed in Asia Minor and Egypt and under the influence of engineers , he asked them to keep an authentic diary of their excavations where precision measurements read off watches and compasses should be written down , to draw a map of the region they travelled , and to describe the layout of the terrain . Itineraries . The publication of works on archaeology and art followed the same pattern as with works on physical and natural sciences : that of an itinerary with descriptions of the roads travelled , noteworthy monuments along these routes and descriptions of their destinations . Hence , volume I of " Expédition de Morée . Section des Beaux Arts " describes Navarino ( pp . 1 – 7 ) with six pages of plates ( fountains , churches , the fortress of Navarino and the palace of Nestor at Pylos ) ; then on pages 9 – 10 , the Navarino - Methoni road is detailed with four pages of plates ( a church in ruins and its frescoes , but also bucolic landscapes reminding the reader that the scene is not so far from Arcadia ) ; and finally three pages on Methoni and four pages of plates . The bucolic landscapes were rather close to the “ norm ” that Hubert Robert had proposed for depictions of Greece . The presence of troops from the expeditionary corps was important , alternating with that of Greek shepherds : “ ( … ) their generous hospitality and simple and innocent mores reminded us of the beautiful period of pastoral life which fiction calls the Golden age , and seemed to present to us as real people the characters of Theocritus ’ and Virgil ’ s eclogues . ” The archaeological expedition travelled through Navarino ( Pylos ) , Methoni , Koroni , Messene and Olympia ( described in the publication ’ s first volume ) ; Bassae , Megalopolis , Sparta , Mantineia , Argos , Mycenae , Tiryns and Nafplion ( subjects of the second volume ) ; the Cyclades ( Syros , Kea , Mykonos , Delos , Naxos and Milos ) , Sounion , Aegina , Epidaurus , Troezen , Nemea , Corinth , Sicyon , Patras , Elis , Kalamata , the Mani Peninsula , Cape Matapan , Monemvasia , Athens , Salamis Island and Eleusina ( covered in volume III ) . Edgar Quinet had left with the rest of the expedition . However , from the time he arrived in Greece , he kept apart from his companions , as did another member of his section , the Lyon sculptor Jean - Baptiste Vietty . The two travelled through the Peoloponnese separately and Quinet visited Piraeus on April 21 , 1829 , thence reaching Athens . He saw the Cyclades in May , starting with Syros . Having taken ill , he returned to France on June 5 , and his " Grèce moderne et ses rapports avec l ’ Antiquité " appeared in September 1831 . Vietty pursued his research in Greece until August 1831 , long after the expedition had returned to France at the end of 1829 . Ways of exploration . The artistic and archaeological exploration of the Peloponnese unfolded in the manner in which archaeological research was then conducted in Greece . The first step always involved an attempt to make an on - site check ( a form of autopsy in the manner of Herodotus ) against the texts of ancient authors like Homer , Pausanias or Strabo . Thus , at Navarino , the location of Nestor ’ s palace was determined from Homer and the adjectives “ inaccessible ” and “ sandy ” . At Methoni , “ the ancient remains of the port of which the description matches perfectly with that of Pausanias are enough to determine with certainty the location of the ancient town . ” Having explored Navarino , Methoni and Koroni , the members of the expedition returned to Messene , where they spent a month starting on April 10 . Olympia . The expedition spent six weeks , starting on May 10 , 1829 , in Olympia . Abel Blouet and Dubois undertook the first excavations there . They were accompanied by the painters Poirot , Trezel and Duval . The archaeological advice of Huyot was followed : “ Following the instructions which had been given to him by the commission of the Institute , this antiquarian ( Dubois ) had begun the excavations of which the result had been the discovery of the first bases of the two columns of the pronaos and several fragments of sculpture . ” The site was divided into squares and excavations were undertaken in straight lines : archaeology was becoming rationalised , and it was in this way that the location of the temple of Zeus was determined . The simple chase after treasure was beginning to be abandoned . The fundamental contribution of the Morea scientific expedition was in effect its quasi - disinterest in pillage and treasure hunting . Blouet refused to perform excavations that risked damaging the monuments , and banned the mutilation of statues with the intent of taking a piece separated from the rest of the statue without regard . It is perhaps for this reason that the three metopes of the temple of Zeus discovered at Olympia were brought back in their entirety . In any case , this willingness to protect the integrity of monuments undoubtedly represented an epistemological progress . Byzantine Greece . The French did not limit their interest to Antiquity ; they also described and drew Byzantine monuments . Quite often , and until then for the travellers as well , only Ancient Greece mattered ; medieval and modern Greece were ignored . Blouet , in his " Expédition de Morée " , gave very precise descriptions of the churches he saw . For instance , plate 9 ( I , II and III ) of volume I deals with : “ Layout , section and perspective view of one of the two small churches of the village of Osphino , situated on the slope of the mountain to the left of the Navarino - Methoni road ; ( … ) ; its interior , decorated with paintings and frescoes , is divided into two parts by a wall that forms a small closed sanctuary in the back in which the priest stands to officiate . ” L ' École française d ' Athènes is founded . The results obtained by the Morea scientific expedition underscored the need to create a permanent , stable structure that would allow its work to continue . From 1846 , it was possible to “ systematically and permanently continue the work so gloriously and so happily begun by the Morea scientific expedition ” due to the creation on rue Didot , at the foot of Mount Lycabettus , of a French scientific institution , l ’ École française d ' Athènes .