Konstantinos Asopios ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Ασώπιος) was a
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
scholar and academic teacher of the 19th century from
Epirus
sq, Epiri rup, Epiru
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = Historical region
, image_map = Epirus antiquus tabula.jpg
, map_alt =
, map_caption = Map of ancient Epirus by Heinri ...
.
Biography
Konstantinos Asopios was born in
Grammeno near
Ioannina around 1790. He was a child of a poor family and initially had the surname Dsolbas. After the death of his father, he followed his mother in Ioannina, where she had found work in the Melas family house. Thanks to his good performance at school he received a scholarship by the benefactor
Zois Kaplanis. Later, he was given the surname “Asopios” by the school principal,
Athanasios Psalidas, which he adopted.
Alongside his studies, he worked as a private teacher and he use the amount of money he collected to go, along with
Christoforos Filitas, in
Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
(
Naples
Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...
) to study medicine, but a health problem forced him to go to
Corfu in 1813 in order to regain health. After his recovery, he returned to Italy and specifically in
Venice
Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The isla ...
, where he worked as a translator. Later, he moved to
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into prov ...
where he worked for five years as a teacher in the Greek school of the city. After that, he studied at the universities of
Göttingen
Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911.
General information
The ori ...
,
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
and
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
at
Lord Guilford’s expenses, who knew him from Ioannina, in order to become a professor of the
Ionian Academy
The Ionian Academy ( el, Ιόνιος Ακαδημία) was the first Greek academic institution established in modern times. It was located in Corfu. It was established by the French during their administration of the island as the ''département ...
that the English nobleman intended to found, which he did in 1824.
After the death of Lord Guilford and the decline of the Ionian Academy that followed, Asopios accepted the proposal of the
Greek state
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
and he got a job at the
University of Athens
The National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA; el, Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Ethnikó ke Kapodistriakó Panepistímio Athinón''), usually referred to simply as the Univers ...
, where he served as a dean three times. He retired in 1866 due to a serious health problem and died a few years later, on 19 November 1872. A big crowd attended his funeral.
He was married to Eleni Asimakopoulou, whom he met during his stay in Trieste. They had two children, Irinaios and Evridiki.
[Anastasios N. Goudas, 1874, p. 235 - 236.]
References
Bibliography
Anastasios N. Goudas (1874). Βίοι Παράλληλοι των επί της Αναγεννήσεως της Ελλάδος Διαπρεψάντων Ανδρών, τ. Β'. Αθήνησι: Τύποις Χ. Ν. Φιλαδελφέως.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asopios, Konstantinos
1790 births
1872 deaths
People from Ioannina (regional unit)
Greeks from the Ottoman Empire
Greek scholars
Academic staff of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens