Apostol Arsache

Apostol Arsache (in Romanian) or Apostolos Arsakis (Greek: Απόστολος Αρσάκης; 1789 – 1869) was a Greek-Romanian politician and philanthropist. He was one of the major benefactors of 19th-century Greece,^[2] while at the same time he became a leading political figure in Romania.^[3]

Apostol Arsache
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office 22 January 1862 – 24 June 1862
Preceded by	office established
Succeeded by	Alexandru Cantacuzino
acting Prime Minister of Romania
In office 8 June 1862 – 23 June 1862
Monarch	Alexandru Ioan Cuza
Preceded by	Barbu Catargiu
Succeeded by	Nicolae Crețulescu
Personal details
Born	1789 (1789) Hotovë, Vilayet of Yannina, Ottoman Empire[1]
Died	1869(1869-00-00) (aged 79–80) Bucharest, Romania

Life

Arsache was born in the village of Hotovë, Përmet District, modern southern Albania, then in Ottoman Empire. He was of either Albanian,^[4] Aromanian^[5][6] or Greek descent.^[7][8][9] In 1800, Arsache moved together with his family to Vienna, there he was educated in a school of the local Greek diaspora. Among his teachers was Neophytos Doukas, prominent figure of the modern Greek Enlightenment. At 1807 Doukas published an epigram composed by Arsache about the work, Breviarium historiae Romanae, of historian Eutropius.^[10] He then went to the University of Halle and studied Medicine.^[11] Arsache composed a treatise under the title Ἔκθεσις συνοπτικὴ τῆς Ἰατρικῆς ἱστορίας (Coincise Report of the History of Medicine) in Ancient Greek,^[10] which was published at the Greek periodical Hermes o Logios, in Vienna.^[11] At 1807 he published his thesis De Piscium Celebro et Medulla Spinali in Latin.^[10]

In 1814 he moved to Bucharest, Romania. In the Cabinet of Barbu Catargiu (22 January to 24 June 1862), he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and following Catargiu's assassination on 20 June, Arsache briefly served as interim Prime Minister of Romania.

Contribution to Greece

He became one of the major benefactors of the newly established Greek state. In 1850 he offered large sums of money for the establishment of a female educational institutions in the Greek capital, Athens, housed in a luxurious mansions at the city center.^[1] Arsache donated a total of 600,000 golden drachmas for this purpose. This institution bore the name Arsakeio after him.^[12] Because of his initiative the Greek Parliament gave him honorary Greek citizenship. He also managed to build a school in his home town in 1870.^[10]

References

1. "The Benefactors of Filekpaideftiki Etaireia". Φιλεκπαιδευτική Εταιρεία. Retrieved 20 January 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}
2. Alexakis, Eleftherios. "Benefaction and Benevolence: The Concept of the Pure Gift and Realization of the Community in Greece" (PDF). Academy of Athens. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
3. Augustinos, Gerasimos (1992). The Greeks of Asia Minor : confession, community, and ethnicity in the nineteenth century. Kent, Ohio u.a.: Kent State Univ. Press. p. 151. ISBN 978-0-87338-459-9.
4. Hungarian exiles and the Romanian national movement, 1849-1867, Béla Borsi-Kálmán, Sándor Bíró, Social Science Monographs, 1991, ISBN 088033228X, p. 62 "Men such as , e.g. Manolache Arghiropolu and Apostol Arsache ( Arsachi ) a physician of Albanian origin".
5. Buda, O. (2016).A THESIS ON THE COMPARATIVE NEUROANATOMY OF FISH BY A SCIENTIST FROM THE BALKANS, APOSTOLE ARSAKY, 1813.
6. Tomara-Sideris, Matoula. The contribution of Vlach benefactors in the shaping of modern Greece.
7. Roubien, Denis (1 November 2016). "Planning the Public Functions of Nineteenth-Century Athens: Setting the Priorities between Idealism and Practical Needs". Journal of Urban History. 42 (6): 1065–1090. doi:10.1177/0096144215598975. ISSN 0096-1442. S2CID 147716306. Founded thanks to the donation of Apostolos Arsakis, a wealthy Greek of Romania.
8. Cuvier, Georges (4 January 2021). Historical Portrait of the Progress of Ichthyology / Tableau historique des progrès de l'ichtyologie: From Its Origins to Our Own Time / Depuis son origine jusqu'à nos jours. Publications scientifiques du Muséum. p. 405. ISBN 978-2-85653-844-9. Apostolos Arsakis (1792-1874), a Greek physician...
9. Mayer, Christine; Arredondo, Adelina (6 May 2020). Women, Power Relations, and Education in a Transnational World. Springer Nature. p. 190. ISBN 978-3-030-44935-3. The school was called Arsakeion after the name of the Greek benefactor A. Arsakis...
10. Αναστασιάδου, Αλεξάνδρα. "Ο Ηπειρωτικός Ευεργετισμός ως Συνεκτικός Πολιτισμικός Παράγοντας μεταξύ των Λαών της Δύσης και της καθ' ημάς Ανατολή" (PDF). Ένωση επιστημόνων Αθηνών. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
11. "Οι Ευεργέτες". arsakeio.gr. Retrieved 20 January 2012.^{[permanent dead link]}
12. Georgeta Filitti-Penelea – Apostol Arsachi. În: PVB, 1995, 1, pp. 57–62.
    Georgeta Filitti-Penelea – Apostol Arsaki – un personaj istoric uitat (Le docteur Apostol Arsaki (XIX s.). În: Magazin Istoric, 1996, 30, nr. 1, pp. 20–22
    Dimitris Michalopoulos, "Apostol Arsachi", Revue Roumaine d'Histoire, tomes XL-XLI (2001–2002), pp. 139–158.
    Dimitris Michalopoulos, Arsaki. La vie d'un homme d'Etat, București: Editura Academiei Române, 2008.