Editing Barbarian (section)

==In classical Greco-Roman contexts==
=== Historical developments ===
[[File:Roman collared slaves - Ashmolean Museum.jpg|thumb|Slaves in chains, relief found in Smyrna (present day [[İzmir]], [[Turkey]]), 200 AD]]
Greek attitudes towards "barbarians" developed in parallel with the growth of [[chattel slavery]] – especially in [[Athens]]. Although the enslavement of Greeks for non-payment of [[debt]]s continued in most Greek states, Athens banned this practice under [[Solon]] in the early 6th century BC. Under the [[Athenian democracy]] established ca. 508 BC, [[slavery in antiquity|slavery]] came into use on a scale never before seen among the Greeks. Massive concentrations of slaves worked under especially brutal conditions in the silver mines at [[Laurium|Laureion]] in south-eastern Attica after the discovery of a major vein of silver-bearing ore there in 483 BC, while the phenomenon of skilled slave craftsmen producing manufactured goods in small factories and workshops became increasingly common.

Furthermore, slave-ownership no longer became the preserve of the rich: all but the poorest of Athenian households came to have slaves in order to supplement the work of their free members. The slaves of Athens that had "barbarian" origins were coming especially from lands around the [[Black Sea]] such as [[Thrace]] and [[Taurica]] ([[Crimea]]), while [[Lydia]]ns, [[Phrygians]] and [[Carians]] came from [[Asia Minor]]. [[Aristotle]] (''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'' 1.2–7; 3.14) characterises barbarians as slaves by nature.

From this period, words like ''barbarophonos'', cited above from Homer, came into use not only for the sound of a foreign language but also for foreigners who spoke Greek improperly. In the Greek language, the word ''[[logos]]'' expressed both the notions of "language" and "reason", so Greek-speakers readily conflated speaking poorly with stupidity.
[[File:Visigoths sack Rome.jpg|thumb|''The [[Sack of Rome (410)|Sack of Rome]] in 410 by the Barbarians'' by [[Joseph-Noël Sylvestre]], 1890]]
Further changes occurred in the connotations of ''barbari''/''barbaroi'' in [[Late Antiquity]],<ref>See in particular Ralph W. Mathison, ''Roman Aristocrats in Barbarian Gaul: Strategies for Survival in an Age of Transition'' (Austin) 1993, pp. 1–6, 39–49; Gerhart B. Ladner, "On Roman attitudes towards barbarians in late antiquity" ''Viator'' '''77''' (1976), pp. 1–25.</ref> when [[bishop]]s and [[Catholicos|''catholikoi'']] were appointed to sees connected to cities among the "civilized" ''gentes barbaricae'' such as in [[Armenia]] or [[Persia]], whereas bishops were appointed to supervise entire peoples among the less settled.

Eventually the term found a hidden meaning through the [[folk etymology]] of [[Cassiodorus]] (c. 485 – c. 585). He stated that the word ''barbarian'' was "made up of ''barba'' (beard) and ''rus'' (flat land); for barbarians did not live in cities, making their abodes in the fields like wild animals".<ref>Arno Borst. ''Medieval Worlds: Barbarians, Heretics and Artists in the Middle Ages''. London: Polity, 1991, p. 3.</ref>

===Hellenic stereotypes===
[[File:Alaric entering Athens.jpg|thumb|20th-century painting of [[Alaric I]], leader of the [[Visigoths]] 395–410, entering [[Athens]] after capturing the city in 395]]
From classical origins the Hellenic stereotype of barbarism evolved: barbarians are like children, unable to speak or reason properly, cowardly, effeminate, luxurious, cruel, unable to control their appetites and desires, politically unable to govern themselves. Writers voiced these stereotypes with much shrillness – [[Isocrates]] in the 4th century B.C., for example, called for a war of conquest against [[Persian empire|Persia]] as a [[panacea]] for Greek problems.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/greekorators00dobs/page/144|title=The Greek Orators|last=Dobson|first=John Frederic|publisher=Books For Libraries Press, Inc.|year=1967|series=Essay Index Reprint Series|location=Freeport, New York|pages=144}}</ref>

However, the disparaging Hellenic stereotype of barbarians did not totally dominate Hellenic attitudes. [[Xenophon]] (died 354 B.C.), for example, wrote the ''[[Cyropaedia]]'', a laudatory fictionalised account of [[Cyrus the Great]], the founder of the [[Persian Empire]], effectively a [[utopia]]n text. In his ''[[Anabasis (Xenophon)|Anabasis]]'', Xenophon's accounts of the Persians and other non-Greeks whom he knew or encountered show few traces of the stereotypes.

In [[Plato]]'s ''[[Protagoras (dialogue)|Protagoras]]'', Prodicus of Ceos calls "barbarian" the [[Aeolic Greek|Aeolian]] dialect that [[Pittacus of Mytilene]] spoke.<ref>Plato, ''Protagoras'' [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0177%3Atext%3DProt.%3Asection%3D341c 341c]</ref>

[[Aristotle]] makes the difference between Greeks and barbarians one of the central themes of his book on ''[[Politics (Aristotle)|Politics]]'', and quotes [[Euripides]] approvingly, "Tis meet that Greeks should rule barbarians".<ref>Aristot. Pol. 1.1252b</ref>

The renowned [[orator]] [[Demosthenes]] (384–322 B.C.) made derogatory comments in his speeches, using the word "barbarian".

In the [[Bible|Bible's]] [[New Testament]], [[Paul of Tarsus|St. Paul]] (from [[Tarsus, Mersin|Tarsus]]) – lived about A.D. 5 to about A.D. 67) uses the word ''barbarian'' in its Hellenic sense to refer to non-Greeks (''[[Epistle to the Romans|Romans]] 1:14''), and he also uses it to characterise one who merely speaks a different language (''[[First Epistle to the Corinthians|1 Corinthians]] 14:11''). In the [[Acts of the Apostles]], the people of [[Malta]], who were kind to Paul and his companions who had been shipwrecked off their coast, are called barbarians ''(Acts 28:2)''.

About a hundred years after Paul's time, [[Lucian]] – a native of [[Samosata]], in the former kingdom of [[Commagene]], which had been absorbed by the [[Roman Empire]] and made part of the province of [[History of Syria|Syria]] – used the term "barbarian" to describe himself. Because he was a noted satirist, this could have indicated self-deprecating irony. It might also have suggested descent from Samosata's original [[Semitic languages|Semitic-speaking]] population – who were likely called "barbarians by later Hellenistic, [[Greek language|Greek-speaking]] settlers", and might have eventually taken up this appellation themselves.<ref>[http://www.tertullian.org/rpearse/lucian/lucian_intro.htm Harmon, A. M. "Lucian of Samosata: Introduction and Manuscripts."] in Lucian, ''Works''. Loeb Classical Library (1913)</ref><ref>Keith Sidwell, introduction to Lucian: ''Chattering Courtesans and Other Sardonic Sketches'' (Penguin Classics, 2005) p. xii</ref>

The term retained its standard usage in the [[Greek language]] throughout the [[Middle Ages]]; [[Byzantine Greeks]] used it widely until the fall of the [[Eastern Roman Empire]], (later named the [[Byzantine Empire]]) in the 15th century (1453 with the fall of capital city [[Constantinople]]).

[[Cicero]] (106–43 BC) described the mountain area of inner [[Sardinia]] as "a land of barbarians", with these inhabitants also known by the manifestly pejorative term ''latrones mastrucati'' ("thieves with a rough garment in wool"). The region, still known as "[[Barbagia]]" (in [[Sardinian language|Sardinian]] ''Barbàgia'' or ''Barbàza''), preserves this old "barbarian" designation in its name – but it no longer consciously retains "barbarian" associations: the inhabitants of the area themselves use the name naturally and unaffectedly.

===The Dying Galatian statue===
{{main article|Dying Galatian}}
[[File:Dying gaul.jpg|thumb|The ''Dying Galatian'', [[Capitoline Museums]], Rome]]

The statue of the ''[[Dying Galatian]]'' provides some insight into the Hellenistic perception of and attitude towards "Barbarians". [[Attalus I]] of [[Pergamon]] (ruled 241–197 BC) commissioned (220s BC) a statue to celebrate his victory (ca 232 BC) over the Celtic [[Galatia]]ns in [[Anatolia]] (the bronze original is lost, but a [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] [[Roman sculpture|marble copy]] was found in the 17th century).<ref>Wolfgang Helbig, ''Führer durch die öffenlicher Sammlungen Klassischer altertümer in Rom'' (Tubingen 1963–71) vol. II, pp 240–42.</ref> The statue depicts with remarkable realism a dying Celt warrior with a typically Celtic hairstyle and moustache. He sits on his fallen shield while a sword and other objects lie beside him. He appears to be fighting against death, refusing to accept his fate.

The statue serves both as a reminder of the Celts' defeat, thus demonstrating the might of the people who defeated them, and a memorial to their bravery as worthy adversaries. As [[H. W. Janson]] comments, the sculpture conveys the message that "they knew how to die, barbarians that they were".<ref>H. W. Janson, "History of Art: A survey of the major visual arts from the dawn of history to the present day", p. 141. H. N. Abrams, 1977. {{ISBN|0-13-389296-4}}</ref>

=== Utter barbarism, civilization, and the noble savage ===
The Greeks admired [[Scythia]]ns and [[Galatia]]ns as heroic individuals – and even (as in the case of [[Anacharsis]]) as philosophers – but they regarded their culture as barbaric. The [[Roman Empire|Romans]] indiscriminately characterised the various [[Germanic tribes]], the settled [[Gauls]], and the raiding [[Hun]]s as barbarians,{{citation needed|date=October 2016}} and subsequent classically oriented historical narratives depicted the migrations associated with the end of the [[Western Roman Empire]] as the "[[barbarian invasions]]".

The Romans adapted the term in order to refer to anything that was non-Roman. The German cultural historian Silvio Vietta points out that the meaning of the word "barbarous" has undergone a semantic change in modern times, after [[Michel de Montaigne]] used it to characterize the activities of the Spaniards in the New World – representatives of the more technologically advanced, higher European culture – as "barbarous," in a satirical essay published in the year 1580.<ref>{{cite book|title= On Cannibals|author= Montaigne}}</ref>  It was not the supposedly "uncivilized" Indian tribes who were "barbarous", but the conquering Spaniards. Montaigne argued that Europeans noted the barbarism of other cultures but not the crueler and more brutal actions of their own societies, particularly (in his time) during the so-called [[European wars of religion|religious wars]]. In Montaigne's view, his own people – the Europeans – were the real "barbarians". In this way, the argument was turned around and applied to the European invaders. With this shift in meaning, a whole literature arose in Europe that characterized the indigenous Indian peoples as innocent, and the militarily superior Europeans as "barbarous" intruders invading a paradisical world.<ref>
{{cite book
|title= A Theory of Global Civilization: Rationality and the Irrational as the Driving Forces of History
|publisher= Kindle Ebooks|author= Silvio Vietta|year= 2013
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{{cite book
|title= Rationalität. Eine Weltgeschichte. Europäische Kulturgeschichte und Globalisierung
|publisher= Fink|author= Silvio Vietta|year= 2012
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