Velestinlis Rigas

He was born in Velestino, Thessaly, in 1757 and died in Belgrade in 1798. He was baptized as Rigas, and his surname was Velestinlis. Later scholars replaced Velestinlis with Feraios. He first learned to read and write at the school in Tyrnavos, then at the school in Ampelakia, and finally in Zagora. In 1777, he was appointed as a teacher in Kissos, Pelion. In 1782, he went to Mount Athos and from there moved to Constantinople. In 1786, he went to Bucharest in Wallachia, where he worked as a secretary for the Romanian lord Bako Veanu. He later worked again as a secretary for the ruler of Wallachia, Nicholas Mavrogenis. In 1790, he went to Vienna for the first time, where he stayed for six months. There, he published his first two books: "The School of Delicate Lovers" and "Anthology of Physics." In 1791, he returned to Bucharest. There, he worked as a secretary for the ruler Michael Soutsos and subsequently as an interpreter at the French Consulate in Bucharest. During that time, he also engaged in trade. In 1796, he went to Vienna for the second time, where he published many of his works and made translations. On December 19, 1797, while heading to Greece, Rigas was captured in a coastal hotel in Trieste. On May 3, 1798, the Austrian authorities handed Rigas and seven of his companions over to the Turks, who imprisoned them in the Nebojsa Tower in Belgrade. On the night of June 24 to 25, 1798, the Turks strangled Rigas and his seven companions and threw them into the Danube.