10 Facts About Constantine Paparrigopoulos

Constantine Paparrigopoulos was a Greek historian, who is considered the founder of modern Greek historiography.

Constantine Paparrigopoulos is the founder of the concept of historical continuity of Greece from antiquity to the present, establishing the tripartite division of Greek history in ancient, medieval and modern, and sought to set aside the prevailing views at the time that the Byzantine Empire was a period of decadence and degeneration.

Constantine Paparrigopoulos is known for vigorously countering the theories of Jakob Philipp Fallmerayer regarding the racial origins of the Greeks.

Constantine Paparrigopoulos was the first historian who managed to demonstrate that Fallmerayer's theory was false.

In 1830 Constantine Paparrigopoulos travelled to Greece to study in the "Central School" of Aegina, founded by the Greek leader Ioannis Kapodistrias.

Constantine Paparrigopoulos continued his studies in the universities of France and Germany.

Constantine Paparrigopoulos was reappointed as a teacher when he obtained the Greek nationality.

In 1843, while working in the Ministry of Justice, Constantine Paparrigopoulos published his first survey, About the emigration of Slav tribes in Peloponnese, contradicting with robust arguments Fallmerayer's opinion that modern Greeks are of Slav descent, having no racial relation with the ancient Greeks.

Constantine Paparrigopoulos published the first volume in 1860 and completed his work in 1877 with the last volume, which constituted a synopsis of the Greek War of Independence.

Constantine Paparrigopoulos's elegance is the main merit that places him higher than the other great modern Greek historian, Pavlos Karolidis.