Who were the barbarians?

Short answer

“Barbarian” was the term used by the ancient Greeks and Romans for all peoples who did not speak Greek or Latin, and later for any non-Roman peoples, including the Germans, the Persians, the Huns, and many others. In the context of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the term refers especially to the Germanic peoples who crossed into Roman territory in the late fourth and fifth centuries: the Goths, the Vandals, the Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, the Lombards, and many others.

A longer answer

The term “barbarian” is one of the most loaded in the history of Europe. It has been used for nearly three thousand years, and it has carried very different meanings at different times.

The Greek and Roman meaning

The word barbaros was originally Greek, used by the Greeks to describe anyone who did not speak Greek. The Greeks used it in much the same way that English speakers use “foreigner”: not necessarily a hostile term, but a way of marking those who were not part of one’s own culture. Herodotus, for example, used barbaros for the Persians, the Egyptians, and other non-Greek peoples, often without hostile intent.

The Romans borrowed the term and applied it to anyone who did not speak Latin or Greek, the two civilized languages of the Roman world. Roman writers used it especially for the Germanic and Celtic peoples of northern Europe, but also for the Persians, the peoples of the steppe, and any other non-Roman group. Like the Greek usage, it was often descriptive rather than insulting, although Roman writers also used it to characterize the supposed crudeness and ferocity of their northern neighbors.

The barbarians in Roman eyes

Roman views of the barbarians were complex and varied. Some Roman writers, such as Tacitus, idealized the barbarians as noble savages, possessing the courage and simplicity that the supposedly decadent Romans had lost. Other writers, such as Caesar, portrayed them as treacherous, drunken, and violent. Most Roman writers agreed that the barbarians were warlike and that they were a constant threat to the Empire.

It is important to remember that the Roman concept of “barbarian” was cultural and linguistic, not racial. A Romanized Gaul who spoke Latin and followed Roman customs was not a barbarian, even if he was ethnically Celtic. A German who served in the Roman army, spoke Latin, and adopted Roman customs could become a Roman. The famous “Romanization” of the barbarians is described in more detail in the The Germanic Migrations.

The barbarian invasions

In the context of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the term “barbarian” is most often used for the Germanic and other peoples who entered the Roman Empire in the late fourth and fifth centuries. These peoples included the Visigoths, who sacked Rome in 410; the Vandals, who established a kingdom in North Africa; the Ostrogoths, who established a kingdom in Italy under Theodoric; the Franks, who established a kingdom in Gaul; the Anglo-Saxons, who settled in Britain; the Lombards, who invaded Italy in 568; and many others. The migrations of these peoples are the subject of the The Germanic Migrations.

These peoples were not undifferentiated. They had different languages, different customs, different political structures, and different religious traditions. The Visigoths and the Ostrogoths were both Goths, but they had been separated for centuries. The Vandals, the Burgundians, and the Suebi were not closely related. The Franks, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Lombards were linguistically related but politically distinct. The historian Jordanes, who wrote an account of the Goths in the sixth century, distinguished carefully between the various Gothic and other peoples, and modern historians continue to do so.

Modern uses of the term

In modern English, the word “barbarian” is used in a much more general sense, usually meaning a person who is cruel, uncivilized, or lacking in culture. The word “vandalism” derives from the supposedly destructive behavior of the Vandal tribe, which sacked Rome in 455 and stripped the city of its treasures. The word “Gothic” came to mean, in the eighteenth century, a literary style that was thought to be medieval and barbarous, and from there the word came to refer to the style of architecture, music, and literature that flourished in the late Middle Ages. The history of the word is, in this sense, a history of the way the modern world has thought about the fall of the Western Roman Empire.

It is worth noting that modern historians generally prefer to use specific ethnic and political terms, “Visigothic,” “Frankish,” “Vandal,” “Anglo-Saxon,” and so on, rather than the generic term “barbarian.” The generic term implies a unity that the various peoples did not have, and it carries a pejorative connotation that modern historians try to avoid. Even so, the term has been so influential in Western thought that it is hard to avoid entirely, and it is used in this site mainly as a convenient shorthand for “the various non-Roman peoples involved in the fall of the Western Roman Empire.”

Conclusion

The term “barbarian” was used by the ancient Greeks and Romans for all non-Greek and non-Latin speaking peoples. In the context of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the term refers especially to the Germanic peoples who entered the Empire in the late fourth and fifth centuries. These peoples were not undifferentiated savages but diverse, complex, often sophisticated societies, many of which had been in contact with Rome for centuries. The history of the word “barbarian” is itself a window into how the modern world has thought about the fall of the Western Roman Empire.