CANTACUZINO, ŞERBAN. - B. c. 1640, d. 1688; prince or “domn” of Wallachia from 1678 to 1688. His long “domnia” was important from the religious, cultural, and economic points of view. From his time dates the complete translation of the Bible into Romanian (Biblia lui Şerban, 1688). His policy at the time of the siege of Vienna in 1683, at which he was obliged to be present in the army of the Turkish vizier, was noteworthy: C. encouraged the resistance of the besieged and helped their communications with the Christians. After the Turkish defeat, C. erected a wooden cross in a forest near Vienna, as a sign of his sentiments. He entered into negotiations for an alliance with the Imperials and with the Holy League, with a view to the possible liberation of all the Balkans and the restoration, to the advantage of his family, of the Byzantine empire that had formerly belonged to II. The possibility of the union
of a Romanian Romania with the ancient Greek Romania of the Byzantines has not arisen again.