A.D. Xenopol

Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol
Born	March 23, 1847 Iași
Died	February 27, 1920 (aged 72) Bucharest

Alexandru Dimitrie Xenopol (Romanian pronunciation: [alekˈsandru diˈmitri.e kseˈnopol]; March 23, 1847, Iaşi – February 27, 1920, Bucharest) was a Romanian historian, philosopher, professor, economist, sociologist, and author. Among his many major accomplishments, he is the Romanian historian credited with authoring the first major synthesis of the history of the Romanian people.

Born in Iaşi, where he graduated from high school, he went on to Vienna in 1870 to study law and then to Berlin, where he studied philosophy. In 1868, he made his debut in Convorbiri Literare with a series of studies on Romanian traditions and on Romanian institutions.

At first, Xenopol served as a prosecutor in Iaşi, but he later decided to dedicate himself to the study of history. Starting in 1883, he was a professor of universal history at the University of Iaşi, where he served as rector from 1898 to 1901. He was elected member of the Romanian Academy in 1893.

In his 1899 French-language Les Principes fondamentaux de l'histoire ("The Fundamental Principles of History"), his work most well-known internationally, he argued for history being a true science which follows clearly defined laws and logic, through which the reasons for historical processes could be clearly defined.

His six-volume Istoria românilor din Dacia-Traiană ("The History of the Romanians in Trajan's Dacia"), completed between 1888 and 1893, strongly asserts that the Romanians are of predominantly Roman origin - a position further elaborated by the historian Nicolae Iorga, one of Xenopol's numerous pupils (see Origin of the Romanians).

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