834707836

44 Cristina łon 4

the previous one?” ¹⁶ Indeed, we can notice that at 1711 or 1716, the chro-nicles do not take into account any break, any abrupt beginning: Neculce, who cannot be suspected of liking the Greeks, speaks liighly of ificolae Ma-vrocordat:    “So Neculai Mavrocordat was practising economy (...). The

country got lucky that it so happened that Neculai Voda came to throne. And if other prince, worse than him, had come, the countymen of Moldavia. would have seen bad days” ¹⁷. Becoming aware of the Phanariotic re-gime is a phenomenon that begins under the strong impression produced by the reforms enforced by the Phanariot rulers. These reforms gave birth to the tendency of comparing “the Phanariotic epoch” to "the old age” ("the old customs”): this appears clearly in the memorandums of the boyards, beginning with the second half of the 18th century ¹⁸. Afterwards, the indivi-dualization of the Phanariotic epoch was exaggerated. The Phanariots are, afterall, created by the imagination: the word that designates them was not in usage at that time, it spread only during the first ąuarter of the 19th century ¹⁹. The "Phanariots” are a fiction of the posterity, created by an epoch that needed to compare itself to a negative model²⁰.

3b. A large rangę of stereotypes designates the Phanariots in textbooks. The first category of stereotypes is the association of the Phanariots with greed, corruption, plunder, vice. V. A. Urechia says, without any ambigui-ty: "The phanariots invaded (the country) like starving locusts and sucked poor Romanians' blood” ²¹. Basiliu Dragosiescu has a morę "artistic” way of setting forth his opinion: "In order to realize what kind of destiny our countries had, one should imagine a laid table, loaded with the most deli-cious food; and then a pack of starving dogs, rushing freely at this table” ²². Another category of stereotypes contributing to build up a sort of universal figurę of the Phanariot, is his association with despotism, tyranny, cruelty. His arbitrary acts consisted in oppressing the inhabitants of the Romanian countries by heavy taxes; in replacing in all functions Romanians with Greeks.

Another element of the portrait is the image of Phanariots as authors of the morał and the military decay of the Romanian people, corruptors of its old customs. The Romanians are rarely guilty ofhaving let this to hap-pen. A very smali number of textbook authors, such as if. Scurtescu, think that the Phanariotic regime was a punishment for the intemal disunity: "Because that meanness came as a conseąuence of intemal discord, we have to take it into account seriously so that it should serve as a lesson” ²³.

^1€ Florin Constantiniu, Cind incepe epoca fanariotd?, in “Studii si materiale de istorie medie”, XI, 1992, p. 109. See also Vlad G^orgescu, “Progres” et **dćcadence*' cl ans la pcnsće politiąue Youmaine au XVIIIe siccle, in “Symposium.. .”, p. 342.

¹⁷    łon Neculce, Opere, edited by Gabriel Strempel, p. 627.

¹⁸    Florin Constantiniu, op. cit., p. 114.

¹⁹    Andrei Pippidi, Phanar, Phanariotes, Phanarioiisme, in “Hommes et idees du Sud-Est Europćen k l’aube de 1'cLge moderne”, Bucuresti/Paris, 1980, p. 341, 347.

²⁰    $tefan Lemny, op. cit., p. 19—20.

²¹    V. A. Urechia, Istoria Rotndnilor. Biografii rotudnesci dupd metoda cateheticd pentn# clasa II primard fi fcolile sdtesci din Principatele Unitę, Iaęi, 1859, p. 49—54.

²²    Basiliu Dragosiescu, Extractu din istoria Rom&nilorn pentru usulu scolelor primare de ambele sexe, Ploieęci, 1874, p. 64.

²² N. Scurtescu, Prescurtare din istoria Rotndnilor pentru scoala primard, Bucureęti* 1878, p. 43.