His family name was Hatzivasiliou (Χατζηβασιλείου), but adopted the nickname “Perraivos” alluding to the Perrhaebi, an ancient Greek tribe of Thessaly.

[1] When the French occupied the Ionian Islands for a second time in 1807, he retained his rank and became a member of the Albanian Regiment, established the same year (Boppe, p. 11).

Its first volume was published in Greek in 1803 in Paris and includes the earliest historical essay on Souli based on first-hand informations gathered from Souliotes refugees fighters in the island.

In Wallachia, he met Alexander Ypsilantis, the political and military head of the Greek revolution, in 1820 and tried to persuade him to postpone the uprising.

However, Ypsilantis, resolved to begin the revolution in March 1821, sent Perraivos to Epirus to coordinate with the Souliotes and other captains whom he knew from Corfu.

After the treaty between Souliotes and Ottomans and the evacuation of Souli, he went to Missolonghi and then to other parts of Greece, participating in many military campaigns and political missions.