Born in Iași, his father Panait was a general in the Romanian Army, his mother was Smaranda (née Nastasachi) and his brother was Eugeniu Botez.
He attended primary school in the Sărărie neighborhood, followed by the National College and then the literature faculty of the University of Iași, where he studied between 1901 and 1906.
In 1923, he earned a doctorate in philosophy, with a thesis on Xenopol as theoretician and philosopher of history, and was granted the title of docent in 1930.
His articles appeared in Arhiva as well as in other Iași magazines, particularly Viața Românească; he belonged to the intellectual circle associated with the latter publication.
His reviews there were gathered into his 1923 debut volume, Pe marginea cărților, but he only occasionally penned criticism, instead preferring to focus on problems of literary historiography, as exemplified in his posthumous Figuri și note istorico-literare (1944).