Antiochus Kantemir

Who was Antiochus Kantemir?

Prince Antiokh Dmitrievich Kantemir was a Moldavian-born Russian Enlightenment man of letters and diplomat.

Kantemir was born to the Moldavian Prince Dimitrie Cantemir and Princess Kassandra Cantacuzene in Iaşi.

Educated by his father and at the Saint Petersburg Academy, having spent much of his youth as a hostage in Ottoman Constantinople, Antiokh joined Dimitrie in Russia at their estate in the vicinity of Kharkov.

His work reflects the scope and purpose of Peter the Great's European-style reforms, standing out as a contribution to the integration of Russian culture into the world circuit of Classicism. In this respect, the most noticeable effort is his Petrida, an unfinished epic glorifying the Emperor.

From 1731 he was Russian envoy to London. From 1736 until his death, Antiokh was minister plenipotentiary in Paris, where he was a noted intellectual figure and close friend to Montesquieu and Voltaire.