Born in Cmpulung-Muscel, Arge County, he was the son of Constantin Barbilian and Smaranda,

born oiculescu. He attended the Ion Brtianu High School in Pitetiand the Gheorghe Lazr High
School in Bucharest. During that time, he discovered that he had a talent for mathematics, and
started publishing in Gazeta Matematic, one of the most prestigious math publications of that
time;[citation needed] it was also then that he discovered his passion for poetry. Ion Barbu was known as
"one of the greatest Romanian poets of the twentieth century and perhaps the greatest of all"
according to Romanian literary critic Alexandru Ciornescu.[citation needed] As a poet, he is best known for
his volume Joc secund ("Mirrored Play").[citation needed]
He was a student at the University of Bucharest when World War I caused his studies to be
interrupted by military service. He completed his degree in 1921. He then went to Gttingen
University to study number theory with Edmund Landau for two years. Returning to Bucharest, he
studied with Gheorghe ieica, completing his thesis in 1929[1]