Anastasios Polyzoidis

Anastasios Polyzoidis was a distinguished jurist, legal scholar, intellectual, and politician. He was born in 1802 in Melnik, Macedonia, 70 kilometers northwest of the city of Serres. The predominantly Greek Melnik became part of Bulgaria in 1913. At a very young age, he went to Europe for higher education, studying law and history at the Universities of Göttingen, Berlin, and Vienna. When the Greek War of Independence began in 1821, he interrupted his studies and went to Greece. He contributed his knowledge to the proceedings of the First National Assembly of Epidaurus. At the young age of just twenty, he was largely responsible for drafting the Constitution of Epidaurus and the famous declaration of 1822, which distinguished the Greek Revolution from the revolutionary movements in Europe. He wrote that the Greek war was national and sacred, with the sole aim of national restoration, free from the demagogic and self-serving goals and principles of the social movements of the time. He also served as Secretary of the Council of Ministers under President Alexandros Mavrokordatos. Later, he led a delegation to London to negotiate the first loan. He participated in the final phase of the siege of Messolonghi and the heroic Exodus. It was he who later, in a speech in Nafplio, called Messolonghi the "Sacred City," a name that prevailed. In 1828, believing that the struggle had ended, he went to Paris to complete his studies. In the new Greek state, he held significant positions: President of the Court of First Instance of Nafplio, Governor of Attica and Boeotia, Minister of Education, Religious Affairs, and the Interior. As Minister of Education, he greatly contributed to the organization and operation of the first university of the Greek State. He died in Athens in 1873.