this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2025
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Barbarian travelers approaching a border checkpoint of the Roman Empire (lemmy.world)
submitted 10 months ago by PugJesus@lemmy.world to c/historyillustrations@lemmy.world
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[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 months ago (1 children)

The Ancient Greek name βάρβαρος (bárbaros) 'barbarian' was an antonym for πολίτης (politēs) 'citizen', from πόλις (polis) 'city'. The earliest attested form of the word is the Mycenaean Greek 𐀞𐀞𐀫, pa-pa-ro, written in Linear B syllabic script.

The Greeks used the term barbarian for all non-Greek-speaking people, including the Egyptians, Persians, Medes and Phoenicians, emphasizing their otherness. According to Greek writers, this was because the language they spoke sounded to Greeks like gibberish represented by the sounds "bar..bar..;" the alleged root of the word bárbaros, which is an echomimetic or onomatopoeic word.

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian

[–] WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Yes I'm aware of this. But then this would be a Barbarian group approaching a Barbarian gate. I find it more odd that we refer to the people approaching the gate as Barbarians. The Romans themselves would have called them something else.

[–] PugJesus@lemmy.world 6 points 10 months ago

The Romans themselves would have called them something else.

In Ancient Rome, the Romans adapted and applied the term to tribal non-Romans such as the Germanics, Celts, Iberians, Helvetii, Thracians, Illyrians, and Sarmatians.

[–] merde@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 months ago

on the same page

The Romans used the term barbarus for uncivilised people, opposite to Greek or Roman, and in fact, it became a common term to refer to all foreigners among Romans after Augustus age (as, among the Greeks, after the Persian wars, the Persians), including the Germanic peoples, Persians, Gauls, Phoenicians and Carthaginians.