Today, we use “barbarian” to describe anyone who is violent, uncivilized, or ignorant. But in ancient Greece and Rome, it simply meant a “foreigner” who didn’t belong to them and spoke a foreign language.
Our “bla, bla, bla” was “bar, bar, bar” to them.
The ancient Greeks and Romans lived in powerful, organized societies and believed they were superior; they looked down on people from other lands.
However, it started out as a way to describe outsiders, not an insult.
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In Ancient Greece, Barbarians Were Foreigners Who Were Deemed Uncultured
“Barbarian” came from the Greek word “barbaros,” which was first used to describe anyone who didn’t speak Greek.
The Greeks thought that foreign languages sounded like nonsense, like “bar bar bar,” so they called non-Greek speakers “barbaroi.”
In Greek language, “barbaroi” means “foreigners” whose speech sounded unintelligible to Greeks, rather than “uncivilized.”
As mentioned earlier, it wasn’t an insult but more like calling someone a foreigner. It took on more negative meanings only as time passed.
They started to believe that anyone who didn’t share their language or customs was uncivilized; they thought their own culture was better.
Slaves
When the Greeks went to war with foreign tribes or city-states, they would take prisoners and sell them into slavery. These prisoners were usually non-Greeks, and so were automatically labeled as “barbarians.”
Most of the time, they believed these barbarians were naturally fit to be slaves because they came from societies that didn’t value the same things as Greek culture, such as rational thinking, education, or civic duty.
This justified slavery for them, as they thought they were doing barbarians a favor by bringing them into Greek households.
Even as slaves, they would be exposed to a more civilized way of life.
In Ancient Rome, Barbarians Were Non-Roman Tribes That Might Have Fighting Skills
The Romans borrowed the term “barbarian” from the Greeks, but they used it more politically. It was any person or tribe that didn’t belong to the Roman Empire or didn’t live the Roman way.
This included Germanic, Celtic, and eastern tribes, which were painted as violent, unpredictable, and primitive in Roman writings.
Skilled Warriors
Although the Romans looked down on barbarians, they also respected their fighting ability; many barbarian tribes were skilled in battle, and they were even hired as mercenaries or paid soldiers.
In the late Roman Empire, whole units of the army were made up of barbarian warriors. Some rose to high military ranks and defended Roman borders.
One famous example is Alaric, a Visigoth leader who once served in the Roman army but later led a group that sacked Rome in 410.
Are There Barbarians in the 21st Century?
You may be wondering, “Do barbarians still exist?” Not really, at least if we mean the original Greek idea of outsiders who didn’t speak their language.
Today, no group is called “barbarians” in that old sense. It’s just a dramatic word we use for someone violent or cruel, not a label for any culture.
