CANTACUZINO, SERRAN

CANTACUZINO, ȘERBAN. - Born c. 1640, died in 1688; prince or “domn” of Wallachia from 1678 to 1688. His long reign was significant from religious, cultural, and economic standpoints. His era saw the complete translation of the Bible into Romanian (the “Biblia lui Șerban,” 1688). Notable was his policy during the siege of Vienna in 1683, to which he must have accompanied the Turkish vizier’s army: Șerban encouraged the besieged to resist and facilitated their communications with Christians. After the Turkish defeat, he erected a wooden cross in a forest near Vienna as a sign of his sentiments. He entered into alliance negotiations with the imperial forces and the Holy League with a view to the possible liberation of the entire Balkans and the restoration, for the benefit of his family, of the Byzantine Empire, which had once belonged to them. The opportunity for uniting a Romanian Romania with the ancient Greek Romania of the Byzantines never arose again.