The monarchist anti-communist who established the 4th of August dictatorship
“Then, it is war.”
A Greek military officer turned politician, Metaxas sought an authoritarian national order that joined monarchism to hostility toward parliament. With King George II's support, he suspended parliament in 1936 and established the 4th of August Regime, banning parties and strikes while repressing the left. He also used state intervention and a youth organization to mobilize society, and historians have debated whether his rule is best understood as fascist, authoritarian-conservative, or a regime with a strong fascist component. In 1940 he rejected Italy's ultimatum and led Greece into war, but died in 1941 before the German invasion.
Also known as: John Metaxas
Activities and affiliations
Career Timeline
- 1890Second lieutenant, Hellenic Army Engineers
- 1899–1903Studied at the Berlin War Academy
- 1910–1912Adjutant to Eleftherios Venizelos, Minister of Military Affairs and prime minister
- 1912–1913Operations staff officer in the Balkan Wars and military adviser at the London Conference
- 1922–1936Founder and parliamentarian of the Freethinkers' Party
- 1926–1928Minister of Communications in Alexandros Zaimis's cabinet
- 1932–1933Minister of the Interior under Panagis Tsaldaris
- 1936–1941Prime Minister of Greece and leader of the 4th of August Regime
Related historical events
Northern border fortifications and the war of 1940-41
After taking power, Metaxas pushed forward the construction of a defensive line on Greece's northern border. Built along the Greco-Bulgarian frontier against Bulgarian rearmament and named after him, the Metaxas Line consisted chiefly of tunnels leading to observatories, emplacements and machine-gun nests. The plans were drawn up in 1935 and work began at Kerkini in 1936, but the original intention of extending the line as far as Ormenion was never fulfilled: Greece became involved in the Second World War in 1940 and the works stopped. At the outbreak of the war the line reached only Komotini in Thrace and was 155 km long, comprising 21 independent fortification complexes, of which Fort Roupel was the largest, covering 6.1 km.
On the night of 28 October 1940 the Italian ambassador Emanuele Grazzi called at Metaxas's home and delivered an ultimatum demanding the right to occupy strategic points. Metaxas answered in French, the language of diplomacy: "Alors, c'est la guerre" (Then it is war). A few hours later Italian forces invaded Greece from Albania, beginning the Greco-Italian War. The Greek army held the attack and then counter-attacked, driving the Italians back and occupying a large part of southern Albania, then called Northern Epirus. Metaxas, however, did not live to see the German invasion of Greece in April 1941. He died at his home in Kifisia on 29 January of that year; the causes put forward have included cancer of the larynx, a laryngeal abscess, and incurable toxaemia resulting from phlegmon of the pharynx.
His fortification line was put to the test after his death. At dawn on 6 April 1941 the German XVIII Mountain Corps and XXX Corps attacked the Metaxas Line, but the Greek troops under Major General Konstantinos Bakopoulos resisted fiercely for three days. The line, however, extended only 155 km, east of Fort Roupel in western Thrace, and its garrison was small because most of the Greek army was engaged against the Italians on the Albanian front. The Germans outflanked it through Yugoslavia and took Thessaloniki on 9 April, whereupon the Eastern Macedonia Army Section surrendered and the battle for the line ended. The German general Wilhelm List, who had attacked the Metaxas Line, praised the courage of the Greek soldiers: he allowed them to leave with their war flags provided they surrendered their arms, and ordered his own men to salute them.