Dimitrie Cantemir, the First Modern Historian Writing on the Romanian-Bulgarian State Founded by the Asan Brothers

Abstract

Hronicul vechimii romano-moldo-vlahilor includes some references to the Vlachs from Epirus and Thessaly, but Dimitrie Cantemir was mostly concerned with the greatest political achievement of the south-Danubian Romanians, the state created in cooperation with the Bulgarians after the rebellion of 1185 against the Byzantine domination. His main source was the history of Niketas Choniates, the most important for the first two decades of the state, but he ignored other indispensable sources like Georgios Akropolites or Jeffrey of Villehardouin. Large fragments from the book of the Byzantine historian and statesman Niketas Choniates were translated by Cantemir in his unfinished history of the Romanians. Even if he was wrong about the north-Danubian origin of the Romanian rebels, and even he made other mistakes like the identification of Ioniţă (Kaloian) with Ivanko, Cantemir achieved a valuable work. He described the events between 1185 and 1205 almost in concordance with what we know now (for the later period he did not dispose of enough data). Cantemir could be considered the first Romanian Byzantinist.

Keywords

• dimitrie cantemir
• niketas choniates
• antonius bonfinius
• mauro orbini
• asan dynasty