Native Name: | Département d'Ithaque |
Conventional Long Name: | Department of Ithaque |
Common Name: | Ithaque |
Year Start: | 1797 |
Year End: | 1798 |
Flag: | Flag of France |
Image Map Caption: | The three departments of Greece |
Official Languages: | French |
Common Languages: | Greek |
Status: | Department of the French First Republic |
Admin Center Type: | Chef-lieu |
Admin Center: | Argostoli 38.17°N 20.49°W |
Leader Title1: | Commissioner |
Leader Name1: | Pierre-Pomponne-Amédée Pocholle |
Era: | French Revolutionary Wars |
Event Pre: | Treaty of Campo Formio |
Date Pre: | 18 October 1798 |
Event Start: | Establishment |
Date Start: | 7 November |
Date End: | 29 October |
Event End: | Fall of Cephalonia |
Date Post: | 25 March 1802 |
Event Post: | Official disbandment |
P1: | Venetian rule in the Ionian Islands |
Flag P1: | Flag_of_the_Republic_of_Venice.svg |
S1: | Septinsular Republic |
Flag S1: | Flag_of_the_Septinsular_Republic.svg |
S2: | Pashalik of Yanina |
Flag S2: | Flag of the Ottoman Empire.svg |
Today: |
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Ithaque (in French i.tak/; French for "Ithaca") was one of three short-lived French departments of Greece.
It came into existence after Napoleon's conquest in 1797 of the Republic of Venice, when Venetian Greek possessions such as the Ionian islands fell to the French Directory. It included the islands of Ithaca, Cephalonia and Lefkada, as well as the cities of Preveza, Arta and Vonitsa on the adjacent mainland. Its prefecture was at Argostoli on Cephalonia. The islands were lost to Russia in 1798 and the department was officially disbanded in 1802. Also Preveza, Arta and Vonitsa were captured in 1798 by Ali Pasha, ruler of the Pashalik of Yanina.
During the renewed French control of the area in 1807–1809, the department was not re-established, the constitutional form of the Septinsular Republic being kept.
The Commissioner of the Directory was the highest state representative in the department.