Constantin Sion , also known as Costandin or Cothi Sion September 18, β February 27, , was a Moldavian political conspirator, genealogist, and polemicist. He was born into the lower ranks of the boyar aristocracy , and, though his brothers were able to climb the social ladder, he mostly had petty offices in the provinces. Sion's frustration with this standing, and his resentment toward more successful Greeks , shaped his literary work and his activities as a falsifier of documents, in conjunction with his younger brother Costache.
Early on, he fabricated evidence that suggested his family was descended from the Khan Girays of the Crimean Khanate. Constantin experienced an episodic rise in status during the Greek War of Independence , when he supported the Ottoman Empire and had his loyalism rewarded with the title of Paharnic ; however, he quickly reverted to the position of a minor copyist for the Moldavian Treasury, in which capacity he began gathering notes for his genealogical manuscript, Arhondologia Moldovei "Moldavia's Peerage".
The latter, completed only in the s and never published in its author's lifetime, combines historical record with political polemic, making its reliability a subject of dispute among later, professional historians. The family was especially resented, and eventually blacklisted, by the Russian-appointed Prince , Mihail Sturdza , whose rule is castigated throughout Arhondologia.
Though sharing some of the goals of the Moldavian revolutionaries , the brothers kept out of the events, and reverted to deep conservatism, criticizing both Sturdza and his opponents. They maintained this stance under the s reign of Grigore Alexandru Ghica , resenting in particular his overtures toward Romanian nationalism , which included proposals for union with Wallachia. Constantin reluctantly followed his brother in supporting Grigore Sturdza as a candidate for the Moldavian throne.
It fascinated scholars of that age, beginning with those who, like Gheorghe Asachi , also resented the unionist project. The Sion forgery was convenient to them for offering an account of life in the largely undocumented Romanian Dark Ages , and also for suggesting that Moldavian boyardom had its origins planted in the Roman Empire ; in addition the work offered justification for the restoration of Greater Moldavia and its separation from Wallachia.
