CANTEMI, DEMETRIUS, son of a prince of Moldavia, born in 1673; died in 1723. Disappointed in not succeed-
ing his father in that dignity, which was held under the Ottoman Porte, he went over with his army to the Czar Peter, against whom he had been sent by the Grand Signior. He signalized himself in the czar's service, and wrote in Latin a History of the Growth and Decay of the Ottoman Empire, which has been translated into almost every language in Europe. This once popular work is now known to be taken principally from an inaccurate abridgment and continuation of Saad-ed-deen's great Turkish history. (See Journal Asiatique, anno 1824, tom. iv.)