Editing Barbarian (section)

===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.