He was born in Cythera in 1771 and he grew up in Gianena where he lived and worked almost for his entire life. His mother, Tarsa, was from Peloponissos and his father, doctor Stephanos Vilaras, first taught him reading and writing. In 1789, the date the French Revolution began, at the age of 18 years he travels to Padova to study medicine. There, in the neighboring Venice he takes a deep breath of the revolutionary air blowing from Paris and full of enthusiasm and hope that his own country will also be free soon, he participates in conspiracy meetings with other fellow Greeks. Venecian authorities shortly discover these meetings, and as a consequence he is arrested along with his friend Ioannis Krassas, he is put to jail and goes through a rough time. The same year, the troops of Napoleon occupy Venice. The struggle of Vilaras and his friends is now justified.

In 1801 he graduates from the Academy of medicine and philology of Padova and goes home. Immediately he is hired as the doctor of Velis, the son of pasha Ali, whom he follows in different campaigns in Macedonia, Thessali and elsewhere. In his free time, he writes verses and thus as of 1812 to 1815, period during which he was in Tripolitsa, he wrote the following poems: «Ωδή» and «Παρωδία της Τριπολιτσάς». Apart from writing poems, he starts translating classic works of antiquity and studies a new system in written language. Vivd supporter of the vernacular language he sought to implement it fully in written and spoken language, and therefore he was determined to demonstrate its great possibilities in literature and prose in general. Apart from poetry, he uses it when translating ancient Greek writers, battling against the prejudice that the language of the people cannot convey noble ideas. At the same time, he proceeds to simplify the written language based on the phonetic writing. His longlasting efforts culminated in the book Η Ρομεηκη γλοσα that is the only work of his that was published while he was stll alive. In particular, he writes on the value of the demotic: “[…] our simple language has endless treasures of graces and flavours, only the prejudice, dominating the mind of those people, where there riches should have been hunt out, made them neglect and hold it in contempt, without any right in the world”.

In August 1815 he returns to Giannena, in search of a more peacefull life. There, he practices as a doctor and at the same time becomes the doctor of Veli’s wifes. From this position he helps in every possible way his fellow citizens, when the need arises. Except for a doctor, he was also a good naturalist and chemist and kept his own pharmacy in the city of Giannena. He is the first to write labels on medicine and prescriptions in simple Greek, thus generalizing the use of Modern Greek.

In 1820, the sultan army besieged Giannena, he lost all his property and was forced to take refuge in Tsepelovo, in Zagori together with his family. The same period it appears that he had joined Filiki Eteria and thus together with other friends of his he undertook the responsibility to defend its end in Epirus. Hardship and mental distress, however, led him to death. In 1823 he died abandoned and poor. Ath.

In 1827, in Corfu, Ath Politis took the commitment to publish a collection of poems and prose of the poet and a translation of “Βατραχομυομαχίας” under the title Ποιήματα και πεζά τινά. The poems are lyrical and satirical and are clearly affected by Anacreon, Athanassios Christopoulos and Italian decadence poetry. In some of them, we can also discern a clear impact of our demotic poetry.