Ioan Popovici was a Romanian general assigned to the general staff headquarters, during World War I. He attended the Școala Militară de Infanterie și Cavalerie in Bucharest from 1885 to 1887. Afterward he rose through the ranks until he became a Brigadier General in 1916 as World War I was raging, engulfing Romania. He was known as "Epure" to distinguish him from another Romanian general with the same name.