13 Facts About Athanasios Psalidas

Athanasios Psalidas, was a Greek author, scholar and one of the most renowned figures of the modern Greek Enlightenment.

Athanasios Psalidas continued his studies in Russian Empire in Slavic Poltava Seminary and in Austria.

Athanasios Psalidas denied the charges, but his stay in Vienna was unsafe and decided to return to Ottoman-ruled Greece in 1796.

Athanasios Psalidas returned to his native Ioannina, then a prospering city with a large expatriate merchant class and a major cultural center of the Ottoman Greek world.

Athanasios Psalidas brought with him educational equipment and special instruments in order to teach astronomy and perform a number of chemical and physical experiments.

Athanasios Psalidas's lessons were not only watched by his students, but by locals that admired his work.

Athanasios Psalidas equipped the school's library, which was open to public and hired qualified teaching personnel.

Athanasios Psalidas had to deal with conservative circles, who distrusted and bitterly criticized his innovations and promotion of the "atheist" ideas of Voltaire and many of the ideals of the French Revolution.

Athanasios Psalidas had become one of the most distinguished personalities of city of Ioannina.

Athanasios Psalidas participated in local courts, councils and was adviser to Ali Pasha, who sent him several times to Western Europe in diplomatic missions.

Athanasios Psalidas found refuge in nearby Zagori, when armed conflict between Ali Pasha and the Ottoman Empire broke out.

When young, Athanasios Psalidas adopted an archaist Greek language, but when by the time he had become "the most prominent teacher in Ioannina" he used Demotic Greek.

Athanasios Psalidas disagreed with the position of Adamantios Korais, on the katharevousa.