The invention of the Greek character of Byzantium in the work of Sp. Zampelios was the first move in the effort to refute the theory of Fallmerayer. It contended that Ancient Greek civilization had not faded away, but had been creatively reshaped as it met Christianity, which took place during the Byzantine Empire. With Zampelios then, the foundations were prepared for a total national history to be written, in order for the past, the unbroken course of the Greek nation from Antiquity down to the 19th century, to be narrated. This ambitious project was undertaken and completed by Constantine Paparrigopoulos, who is for this reason considered the founder of Greek national historiography, also known as Greek historism.

C. Paparrigopoulos (1815-1891) was born in Constantinople, studied in France and Germany, and became permanently installed in Greece in 1834. At first he worked as an employee at the Ministry of Justice, then taught in the secondary education sector, and in 1851 he was elected professor of History at the University. His first piece of writing was the study On the settlement of some Slavic nations in the Peloponnese in 1843. The goal to which he was devoted was the refutation of the theories of the German historian Fallmerayer. In his famous work History of the Greek Nation, From Antiquity to Modern Times, which was published in five volumes from 1860 to 1874, he conceived and wrote the entire national history. In this work he adopted the tripartite examination of periods already introduced by Sp. Zampelios (ancient Hellenism, medieval Hellenism,modern Hellenism) and used it as a tool for the narration of the course of the Greek nation down the centuries.

C. Paparrigopoulos, as well as Sp. Zampelios, set the basis for the formation of national identity in modern Greek society. Besides, their work did not concern only a closed and restricted circle of specialists and academics; it was addressed to the society of their times, in order to strengthen their national self-knowledge. Besides, Paparrigopoulos's classes at the University, which constituted the raw material for the writing of his memorable History, were frequently published in Pandora magazine, of which he was the co-publisher, as well as in the Athenian press. The term Greek-Christian, which was devised for scientific purposes, functioned towards the same direction but did not remain a simple instrument of analysis in the hands of specialists. As this term appeared precisely in the mid-19th century, it became a canvas on which the ideology of the Greek state was developed and shaped. The content of education, the orientation of historical studies and the study of tradition (folklore) were organized on this basis. In addition, the Megali Idea (Great Idea) which was nebulous until that time, acquired flesh and bones. The Byzantine Empire, which had now been acclaimed a cultural mould of the - still small - Greek state, became the model for its territorial expansion.