20-24 septembrie 2009 - Biblioteca Metropolitana Bucuresti

760 Nistor Bardua lexicon in four languages (λεξικον τετραγλωσον): Greek, Aromanian,Bulgarian and Albanian. The author’s aim, confessed in the versifiedappeal which precedes the paper’s actual content, is to determin Albanians,Aromanians (Vlachs) and Bulgarians to leave their native languages and tobecome ωµαιοι faster, namely Greeks or, anyway, adherents of Hellenism:“Albanians, Vlachs, Bulgarians of other language, rejoiceAnd be ready all, to become of Rome.Leaving Barbarian language, the voice, the customsAppear as fables to your grand-grandchildrenYou’ll honor the race and you passionsChanging them into Hellenic from Albano-Bulgarian….”The appeals carry on with poetic elements in an illuminist and romanticway:“Rejoice, you, youth of Bulgarian, Albanian, Aromanian,Deacons, Presbyterians and Hieromonks.Wake up from the deep sleep of ignorance.Learn Romaic language, the mother of wisdomMesiodacian Daniil, honorable bursarBeing legally priest, developed the book.And the good shepherd bishop of PelogoniaGave it to print, as divine arch-shepherd.Wishing to teach everybody the Romaic languageAnd to change Bulgarian-Albanian customsDecorating your types and building schools,With a Romaic book accustoming the children… .” 10In all this pro Greek advocacy there is well hidden, not to stir reactionof church authorities, the idea of Romanity, and, perhaps, although seemsexaggerated, even the idea of the Romanianness of the author. He callshimself the “Mesiodacian Daniil”, the author naming Aromanians by thename of “Mesiodacians”. Mesiodacians was the name given by Greekhistorians to Aromaninans placed in small colonies in regions outsideGreece, from southern Danube, while the Aromanians form Greece wereCutzovlachs. (William Martin Leake, Researches in Greece, 89, ApudPapahagi, Per, op. cit., 113) Mentioning his Mesiodacian origin, Daniil says,indirectly, the community of Aromanian and Daco-Roman origin (s.n.) 11 .10The lyrics are reproduced in Romanian after the translation of Papahagi, Per. 1909:112-113.11Suporting our opinion, that Aromanian writers were aware of their brothers fromthe north of Danube, with whom once lived in a compact community, stands the observation