Born in Athens in August 29, 1926. Her father, Nikolaos Glykatzis was a merchant and her mother was Callirhoe, born Psaltidi. She was married to Jacques Ahrweiler (†), they have a daughter. She graduated from the 4th High School of Athens and went on to study at the School of Philosophy of the University of Athens (Faculty of History and Archaeology). She continued her studies in France in the École des Hautes Études, where she obtained her doctorate in History (1960) and became Docteur des Lettres in 1966. In 1955, she started working as a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Studies (CNRS). In 1964, she was named director of the CNRS. She was elected Professor at the Sorbonne, Faculty of Arts, in Paris, in 1967.

She served as director of the History Department and Chairman of the Research Committee of the School of Philosophy of the University of Sorbonne (1969-70), she was visiting professor at the University of Harvard (1973-1974), Vice-Principal (1970-1973) and Principal of the University Paris I (1976-1981, honorary principal since 1981), Rector of the Academy and Chancellor of the Universities of Paris (1982-1989), Vice-President (1976-1989) and then President of the Centre Georges Pompidou (1989-1991), President of the American Museum of Art (France), Vice-President of the Danielle Mitterrand, Foundation “France-Libertés”. Scientific advisor for social and humanitarian sciences of the UNESCO, President and then Honorary President of the University of Europe, Honorary President of the International Committee of Byzantine Studies (1975 to date), Secretary General of the International Union of History Science (1980-1990), President and then Honorary President of the Mouvement Universel de la Responsabilité Scientifique (MURS), President of the National Theatre of Greece (1999-2012), President of the European Cultural Centre of Delphi (1993 to date) and the International Association ‘Dmitri Chostakovitch’.

She is a corresponding member of the British Academy, the Academy of Athens, the Royal Academy of Belgium, the Berlin-Brandenburg Academy of Sciences and Humanities, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. She holds a number of honorary doctorates from various institutions such as the Universities of London, Harvard, Belgrade, New York, the University of Athens, the American University of Paris, the University of Fribourg, the University of Thessaloniki, the University of Crete.

Honors: Golden Cross of the Legion and Brigade of Honor of the Republic of France,  Golden Cross of the Brigade of the Academic Phoenix of the Hellenic Republic, Commander of the Légion d'honneur, Commander of the Ordre National du Mérite, Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, Commander of the Ordre des Palmes académiques, Brigadier of many Brigades (Germany, Luxembourg, Iceland, Austria Mexico, Italy, Portugal)

Publications (selection): Byzance et la mer (1966), Etudes sur les sructures administratives et sociales de Byzance (1971), Idéologie politique de l’Empire Byzantin (1975), Byzance: les pays et les territoires (1976), Geographica byzantina (1981), Héritage culturel et modernité (1990), ΜοντερνισμόςκαιΒυζάντιο (1992) (eng. Modernity and Byzantium), Προβλήματαελληνικήςσυνέχειας (1998) (eng. Problems of the Greek continuity), Studies on the internal diaspora of the Byzantine Empire (1998) in cooperation with Angeliki Laios, ΕλληνισμόςκαιΕυρώπη (1999) (eng. Hellenism and Europe), Les Européens (2000) in cooperation with M. Aymard, The Making of Europe (2000), Τα 600 Μολύβια (2005) (eng. 600 pencils), edit. AnnaGrimani, Γιατί το Βυζάντιο (2009) (eng. Byzantium, why?),  ΣαςμιλώγιατοΒυζάντιο (2014) (en.g I am referring to Byzantium)

Poetry:

Ελληνική Συνέχεια (1998) (eng. Greekcontinuity), Μέμφομαι τον αιώνα (2001) (eng. I blame the struggle), Le Roman d'Athènes (2004), ΤοάγνωστοΒυζάντιο (2006) (eng. The unknown Byzantium), ΜαραθώνιακαιΕθνικά (2010) (eng. For Marathon and the Nation), Τα΄Εμμετρα (2012) (eng. In verse).