LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

The Phanariot prince nicolae Petru Mavrogheni... 47
as he enjoyed the protection of a pasha (Iusuf) and of Cesaerli, admiral-in-
chief of the ottoman navy 18 . the very interesting part, most likely taken
from some kind of prevalent folklore, is the description of Mavrogheni’s
personality 19 :
he was strict, queer with a different kind of character… the substance of
his spirit looked like a combination of opposed ideas and fantasies, his
mind a monstrous amalgamation of many superstitions and prejudices…
with this outer structure and his unusual ways he seemed to suffer from
stupidity or a different kind of madness; on the inside, seen without
passion he did not seem deprived of spirit and mind for he was most
observant of the holy things, very just to the people and a warm protector
of the country or to put it in a better way he was the savior of Wallachia
in the next war20 .
the turks feared him; he could have fled the country at the end but
refused to do so21 .
Fotino’ s history was translated by Gh. Sion in 18592222and thus the
information spread and was kept on romanian soil as well as in the Greekspeaking
territories.
In 1891 a romanian historian, G. I. Ionescu-Gion, wrote a history of
the Fanariots in which Mavrogheni’s portrait was inspired by ienăchiţă
Văcărescu23 .
his chapter is written in a romantic style and starts with the assumption
that the period before the reign of Mavrogenis, i.e. from 1774, when the
throne of Wallachia was taken by Alexander Ipsilantis, had been an era of
peace and tranquillity set of course against a climate of corruption.
In the climate of peace and diplomatic efforts, Mavrogheni came like
a lightning.
Ionescu-Gion imagined Mavrogheni as the son of a fisherman, a sailor
and maybe a pirate. to him he had “a high, lean, black face. his appearance
was horrible and when he gnashed his teeth it sounded like breaking olive
stones. his movements were fast and he could not say anything without
gestures and stumps of his feet”. he suffered like many great people from
18 Ibidem, p. 360.
19 the translation from Greek to english is ours.
20 Dionysios FotIno, op.cit., pp. 358-361.
21 Ibidem, p. 373.
22 Dionisie FotIno, Istoria generală a Daciei, tome II, Bucharest.
23 G.I. IoneSCu-GIon, Nicolae P. Mavrogheni. “O poznă a firii”, Bucharest,
2008.