Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ

Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos (Konstantinople, 1815 – Athens, April 14, 1891) was a Greek historian, recognized as the "father" of Greek historiography and the founder of the concept of the historical continuity of Greece from antiquity to the modern era. He studied law and political science but dedicated his life to the study and teaching of history, primarily at the University of Athens, where he established the tripartite division of Greek history into ancient, medieval, and modern periods. Through his work, especially the five-volume History of the Greek Nation (1860–1872), he sought to overturn the prevailing views of the time that regarded the Byzantine Empire as a period of decline, instead restoring it as an integral and vibrant part of Greek history. His contribution was crucial in shaping the national identity of modern Greek society, as he defended the notion of historical continuity and the unbroken Greek spirit through the centuries.

Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos was born in 1815 in Konstantinople. He was the son of Dimitrios Paparrigopoulos, a banker and prominent member of the Greek community of the city, originally from Vytina in Arcadia, and Tarsia Nikokli. With the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence in 1821, his family suffered tragic losses: his father, his brother Michael, two uncles (including Ioannis Paparrigopoulos), and his father's brother-in-law Dimitrios Skanavis were murdered by the Turkish mob, while their property was confiscated. His mother fled with her eight children to Odessa, where Konstantinos continued his education at the French Lycée Richelieu, as a scholarship student supported by Tsar Alexander I.

Family

In 1841, he married Maria Afthonidi, daughter of an official of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. They had three children: Dimitrios (1843), a poet and playwright, Aglaia (1849), and Eleni (1854). He experienced the deaths of his son in 1873, his daughter and wife in 1890, and his brother Petros in 1891.

In 1830, the family settled in Greece, in Nafplio. Paparrigopoulos attended the Central School of Aegina, founded by Ioannis Kapodistrias, studying under Georgios Gennadios, although he did not graduate. Despite his multilingual abilities (he knew French, German, and Russian) and his extensive study, he never officially completed any level of formal education, a fact that initially hindered his appointment at the University, as he was considered a "heterochthon"—originating from regions outside the newly established Greek state. General Makriyannis defended this policy, insisting on the exclusion of non-native Greeks from public offices.

Professional Career

In 1833, he was appointed as a clerk at the Ministry of Justice, eventually rising to the position of director. In 1845, he was dismissed due to the heterochthon policy but was appointed the same year as a history teacher at the Athens Gymnasium. During this time, he engaged in public debates with G.G. Pappadopoulos on historical issues.

In 1848, he applied for a position as lecturer in Ancient History at the University of Athens but was rejected due to a lack of a degree and doctorate. However, in 1849, the University of Munich awarded him a doctorate in absentia. In March 1850, he submitted a trial lecture at the School of Law but was not appointed.

Finally, on March 6, 1851, he was appointed extraordinary professor of History at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Athens, succeeding Konstantinos Schinas, teaching the history of the Greek nation from antiquity to modern times. In 1856, he was promoted to full professor and served as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy in 1861–1862. He ran unsuccessfully for the rectorship in 1870 and 1871, but was elected rector in 1872.

In 1875, he was named honorary professor at the University of Odessa, and in 1881, he became a member of the Serbian Academy. He served as honorary president of the literary society "Parnassos" and, in 1869, founded the "Society for the Promotion of Greek Letters." He was honored by the royal family and served as tutor to the royal children.

Journalistic Activity

From 1833, he began writing articles for the newspaper Triptolemos in Nafplio. He published the newspapers Ethniki (1847) and Ellin (1858–1860), the latter of which he owned and which supported King Otto’s policies. He also co-founded and directed the French-language newspaper Spectateur de l’Orient from 1853, which aimed to inform foreigners about Greek affairs, and from 1856 to 1858, he served as the Athens correspondent for the newspaper Himera in Trieste.

His most significant journalistic contribution was to the literary magazine Pandora (starting in 1850), which he co-founded with Alexandros Rizos Rangavis and Nikolaos Dragoumis. In Pandora, he published about 50 pieces, mainly historiographical articles and book reviews, many of them unsigned. His regular collaboration with Pandora ended in 1861, though he continued to contribute occasionally to it and other journals such as Parnassos and Estia.

Scientific Work

Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos is considered the founder of modern Greek historiography and is characterized by contemporary historians as the "father" of Greek historiography. He established the notion of the historical continuity of Greece from antiquity to the present day, as he introduced at the University of Athens the tripartite division of Greek history (ancient, medieval, and modern) and sought to overturn the prevailing views of the time that the Byzantine Empire was a period of decline and degeneration, not recognized as part of Greek history. It is believed that he laid the foundations for shaping the national identity of modern Greek society.

In 1843, he made his first appearance with a dissertation titled "On the Settlement of Certain Slavic Tribes in the Peloponnese", exposing the errors of Fallmerayer’s theory. Two years earlier (in 1841), he had translated "Le Centaure" by M. De Guerin, published in the journal European Collector. In 1844, he published a treatise concerning the fall of Corinth to the Romans, titled "The Last Year of Greek Freedom", while in 1846, he compiled an "Abridged Dictionary of the French Language" and collaborated in drafting a French learning method. In 1849, he published the "Handbook of General History", intended for high school students.

In 1853, he released the first, shorter version of his major work "History of the Greek Nation from the Earliest Times to Modernity." In 1855, he delivered his inaugural lecture as a professor, opposing theories that downplayed the importance of Dorian influence on ancient Greek civilization.

In 1860, the publication of "History of the Greek Nation" began, a work that firmly established his reputation in the academic world. This monumental work was divided into three volumes containing fifteen books and was completed in 1876, with the final volume briefly addressing the Greek Revolution of 1821. The best edition of his History is considered the 1925 Eleftheroudakis edition, with interventions by Karolidis. His students included the historian and later prime minister Spyridon Lambros, as well as Pavlos Karolidis.

Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos historically connected antiquity with modern Greece through Byzantium. Similar views had earlier been supported by the historian Spyridon Zampelios, in the introduction to his 1852 volume on Greek folk songs, as well as by British historian George Finlay in his "History of Greece from its Conquest by the Crusaders to its Conquest by the Turks" (1851) and German historian Johann Wilhelm Zinkeisen. Paparrigopoulos was among the first proponents of the Megali Idea (Great Idea). According to him, Hellenism did not perish with the Roman conquest in 146 BC but continued to exist and was revived through the formation of the Byzantine Empire, which he argued was not a decadent remnant of the Eastern Roman Empire but rather a revival of ancient Greek civilization. He identified the fall of Konstantinople to the Crusaders in 1204 as the starting point of modern Hellenism.

He strongly opposed the historian Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer, who in his work "History of the Peninsula of Morea During the Middle Ages" (1830 and 1836) claimed that the Greek population had disappeared by the 6th century AD after the Slavic migrations, thus asserting that modern Greeks had no racial connection to the ancient Greeks.

Moreover, Paparrigopoulos was the first to systematically study the reign of the Isaurian dynasty and recognize positive elements in their reforms. He criticized many historical figures for their pro-Turkish stance, such as John VI Kantakouzenos, and did not hesitate to characterize George Gemistos Plethon as the "Greek socialist of the fifteenth century."

The primary reason he attributed great importance to the Byzantine Empire was his belief that it served as the connecting link between ancient and modern Hellenism, as proving the unity of the Greek nation was one of Paparrigopoulos' main objectives. For Paparrigopoulos, "the Greek nation includes all those who speak the Greek language as their native tongue." Another reason he deemed Byzantium crucial was that it achieved the political unity of the Greeks, something that ancient Greece had lacked. His views on national unity were influenced both by the Megali Idea and by his mentor at the University of Athens, Konstantinos Schinas, with whom he had a close relationship.

Paparrigopoulos also inspired Charilaos Trikoupis, via Stefanos Dragoumis, to move northwards in response to the Slavic threat, setting aside the Cretan Question. His relationship with Trikoupis was positive, as it was Trikoupis who sent him to Konstantinople in 1882 to settle ecclesiastical matters concerning the recently annexed land of Thessaly.

Paparrigopoulos played a key role in the Greek state's foreign policy and was instrumental in shifting the ultimate goals of Greek territorial claims from Mount Olympus, Metsovo, and the Ceraunian Mountains to the Haemus Mountains, Skardus, and the outlets of the Shkumbin River. In the five volumes and the Epilogue of his History, published in 1876 and translated into French during the Eastern Crisis, Paparrigopoulos articulated a framework distinguishing the historical "Greek lands" into three zones: the northernmost, between the Danube and the Haemus, which had been Slavicized; the southernmost, below Olympus and the Ceraunian Mountains, where the Greek language and ethnicity fully prevailed; and the intermediate zone — Macedonia and Thrace — where Greek and Bulgarian languages coexisted, but Hellenism was the "moral master."

At that time, the line from Ohrid to Strumitsa and Nevrokop was generally accepted as the northern boundary of the territories claimed by Greece to better organize Greek claims. In a confidential memorandum to Foreign Minister Alexandros Kontostavlos in 1884, answering the question of what part of Macedonia Greece could effectively claim, Paparrigopoulos, using linguistic and geopolitical criteria, divided Macedonia into three parallel zones: the northern, considered entirely foreign to Hellenism; the southern, "undoubtedly" Greek (up to the Kastoria-Serres line); and the middle, where Greek was hardly spoken as a mother tongue and which was contested by both Greeks and Bulgarians.

Paparrigopoulos argued that Greek claims should focus on the southern and middle zones, which should include Bitola, Gevgelija, Strumitsa, and Melnik. However, as he clarified in another memorandum the following year, he did not believe this division had a historical basis nor that it could be strongly supported internationally that Macedonia was limited to these two zones.

This strategy of claiming the southern and middle zones of Macedonia, which Paparrigopoulos proposed as essential for Greece's economic and military strength and its connection to Thrace and Konstantinople, was initially accepted by Trikoupis in 1885 and adopted as a national objective up to the Balkan Wars.

Evaluation and Legacy

In his work, especially in the History of the Greek Nation published in 1853, he presented Greek history as an unbroken unity, emphasizing the value and significance of the Byzantine period, which until then had been considered an era of decline and degeneration. Through the tripartite division of Greek history (ancient, medieval, modern), which he established during his teaching at the University of Athens, he contributed to the reduction of contempt toward Byzantium and highlighted it as a crucial link in the continuity of the nation.

Paparrigopoulos was influenced by historian Spyridon Zampelios, who had already begun the effort to interpret the Greek character of Byzantium. Paparrigopoulos completed this effort, creating a unified narrative of Greek history known as Neo-Hellenic Historicism. His work targeted not only academics but also the broader public, enhancing national self-awareness through publications in magazines and newspapers. The term "Helleno-Christianity" that he used contributed to the shaping of national ideology and the "Great Idea" (Megali Idea), with Byzantium projected as a cultural model for the newly established Greek state.

Moreover, Paparrigopoulos stood out for his literary grace and the elegance of his style, which made his texts accessible and his narratives vivid, placing him above other important historians of his time, such as Pavlos Karolidis.

Criticism and Reactions

Despite his immense influence, Paparrigopoulos faced intense criticism from many of his contemporaries. At the time he published the History of the Greek Nation, the dominant view was that the Byzantine Empire was degenerate and religiously fanatical, while other historians, such as K. Tsopotós, argued that the Greek communities were a product of the Ottoman taxation system and that there was no real connection between Byzantium and modern Greece.

A significant portion of intellectuals criticized his attempt to position Byzantium between ancient and modern Greece. For example, in 1853, Stefanos Koumanoudis used the term "Zampelios-Paparrigopoulos school" in a negative sense, while Dimitrios Mavrofrydis described his ideas as "fantasies." He also had academic disputes with Konstantinos Sathas and was accused of being a Slavophile. Personal attacks were also directed against him, such as claims that he coveted university property or that he secured state funding for pro-government political purposes.

Many criticisms stemmed from localist sentiments: Margaritis Dimitsas corrected details regarding Macedonia, Theodoros Deligiannis made observations concerning the Morea (Peloponnese), P. Vergotis pointed out omissions related to the Ionian Islands, while Pavlos Karolidis and Nikolaos Dragoumis disagreed with him on specific historical points.

Overall Impression

Paparrigopoulos not only offered a unified vision of Greek history but also conveyed, with moving depth, the struggles and dramas of modern Hellenism, profoundly influencing national identity and the historiography of modern Greece. Despite criticism and later revisions, his work remains a monumental achievement of Greek historiography, and his tripartite division of Greek history continues to be a fundamental concept in both public discourse and education.

This article combines all the information from the two provided texts, fully presenting the legacy, work, and criticisms received by Konstantinos Paparrigopoulos.

Major Works

His most important works include:

On the Colonization of Certain Slavic Tribes in the Peloponnese (1843)

The Last Year of Greek Freedom (1844)

Elements of General History According to the System of the Frenchman Lévy (1845)

Handbook of General History (1849–1852)

Handbook: History of the Greek Nation (1853)

On the Origin and Formation of the Ancient Greek Nation’s Tribes (1855)

Historical Treatises (1858)

History of the Greek Nation (1860–1872) and Epilogue (1877)

Medieval Hellenism and the Nika Revolt, According to Mr. Pavlos Kalligas (1868)

Histoire de la civilisation hellénique (1878)

The Orthodox Church of the East: A Response to Our Era (1879)

Epistolary Narratives (on Greek communities abroad) published in the magazine Estia

Field Marshal Georgios Karaiskakis and Other Historical Works (1889)

The Most Instructive Conclusions from the History of the Greek Nation (1899)

He also translated the work Le Centaure by M. de Guérin, published in the magazine European Collector, and in 1846 compiled a Concise Dictionary of the French Language.