The concept of barbarian it emerged among the Greeks as a way of referring to everyone who spoke languages other than Greek. It was the result of duplicating an onomatopoeia used by greeks to imitate the sound of foreign languages. Over time, it acquired a pejorative tone and used to diminish the foreign culture as if it were wild, primitive.
The term was assimilated by the Romans, who started to use it to designate all peoples who did not have Roman citizenship or shared the Greco-Roman culture. The best known example are the Germanic peoples, who inhabited northern Europe and who were instrumental in the Roman disintegration.
Accessalso: Transformations that took place in Europe during the High Middle Ages
When did the barbarians appear?
the idea of peoplesbarbarians appeared in Ancient Greece, and the term in question was derived from the word barbarians, which, in the Greek language, was first identified in the
Iliad, written by homer. The mention of the word by Homer was made to refer to the Carians, a people who inhabited the region of Asia Minor and did not speak Greek.This term was used by the Greeks to refer to all foreign peoples, that is, to non-Greeks. THE language barrier was the first criterion used to refer to who was and who was not Greek, but over time, the term also came to be used to establish a differentiationcultural.
The notion of barbarian for the Greeks could have a negative sense or not, as it could be used only as an expression to demonstrate linguistic strangeness. The negative sense of the word was developed over time, and it is considered that the Medical Wars were one of the factors for this.
The foreigner, besides being the one who spoke a different language, came to be seen as “bottom” because of cultural differences. Thus, those who did not have the Greek cultural standards, nor had the same forms of social and political organization as the Greeks, began to be negatively taxed.
The word barbarians was formed by repetition of onomatopoeias, because the Greeks reproduced other languages using the onomThetopie “bar bar bar”. The use of the word as cultural differentiation became very strong from the Hellenistic Period, in which the Greeks lost their independence and were conquered by the Macedonians.
Thus, no longer independent, the Greeks reinforced criteria, such as clothing, customs, traditions, political systems, etc., as a way to differentiate themselves from the other, from the foreigner. When the romans they began to have contact with the Greeks, they also started to use the term and the notion of barbarians.
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Barbarians to Romans
For the Romans, the barbarians were all who nopossessedthe roman citizenship is that did not share the Greco-Roman culture. Through the Romans, the pejorative idea that the barbarian was the one held by primitive, uncivilized, uncultivated, wild, late. This created a strong prejudice against anyone who had a different culture. Within Roman history, the best example for us to explore the idea of barbarians were the Germanic peoples.
Germanic peoples
The Germans or Germans were peoples who inhabited the northern europe and they maintained regular contacts with the Romans from the 2nd century BC. Ç. The Romans defined them as barbarians because they, despite being heavily influenced by the Romans, had a culture quite different from the Roman one.
The Germanic traditions, dress, beliefs and languages spoken were different from those practiced by the Romans. There were, therefore, several factors that demonstrated the cultural differences between the groups. An important observation is that the Germans were not a single people, but severalpeoples.
The Germanic peoples inhabited a region called germany and they were defined as such, for the first time, by Julius Caesar, during the war he led against the Gauls. He used the term german to differentiate Cimbris and Swabians (two Germanic peoples) from the peoples Celts (against whom he was at war in Gaul).
There was a certain cultural proximity between the Germans, since they were people with a common ethnic origin. Even so, there was a lot of cultural and linguistic variety among the different Germanic peoples who had been in contact with the Romans. You Germans formed military confederations that united each people.
The relationship of the Germans to the Romans underwent a great deal of variation. Contacts became very frequent from the 1st century AD. Ç. and they had moments of peace, but they also had many moments of hostility. A very common process in this relationship was the assimilation, when the Romans began to accept them in their lands.
Briefly, the Germans were peoplesseminomads that survived from livestock and agriculture. They maintained commercial contacts with the Romans and organized themselves in tribespatriarchal led by a military chief, usually the most powerful warrior. An English monk named Bede reported, for example, that the Saxons they had several military chiefs as leaders. They shared power, and in times of war, one of them was chosen by lot to lead them|1|.
The Germans mastered many techniques, such as jewelery (jewelry manufacture), despite Roman reports indicating that their lands were poor in gold. They were people who, despite being great warriors, also knew how to live in peace, and there are reports that indicate that many of them negotiated with the Romans in order to be able to live peacefully in the lands and under the laws of Rome. Some of these peoples arrived to elaborate laws from the third century d. C., with the objective of solving conflicts and guaranteeing peace. If you want to go deeper into the topic of this topic, read: Germanic peoples.
barbarian invasions
From the 3rd century d. Ç., the Roman Empire went into crisis. This decay lasted until the fifth century and had catastrophic elements caused by the barbarian invasions. These invasions happened when the barbarian peoples (the Germanic peoples and others) began to invade Roman lands.
these invasions were, at first, peaceful and negotiated, but Roman frailty soon caused them to become violent. The Germanic peoples assimilated by Rome were called federated, and many of them turned against Roman rule.
An example of this was the Visigoths, Germanic people who emerged from the Goths. In the fourth century, they negotiated with the emperors of Rome and Constantinople so that they could settle in Roman lands. They would accept Roman law and religion as a demonstration of loyalty and obedience.
Disagreements between the Romans and the Visigoths caused them to go to war. Over time, the Visigoths abandoned the place where they had settled (Eastern Europe) and settled centuries later on the Iberian Peninsula (now Spain and Portugal). The Visigoths were one of dozens of peoples who decided to migrate to Roman lands.
You reasons (which we currently believe) that explained these Germanic/Barbarian migrations were:
- Search for more fertile land;
- Search for lands with milder climates;
- Escape from other peoples.
A barbarian people who caused great terror among the Germans were the Huns. You huns were a people of Central Asia, ethnically classified as Tatar-Mongolian. They, like the Germans, became known as barbarians. The Visigoths just mentioned made an agreement with the Romans to settle in the lands of Rome in the fourth century, because they feared the Huns.
The Romans' records of the Huns clearly demonstrate that the notion of barbarian used to referring to them and other peoples was fraught with prejudice and used to compare them with rude and violent.
A fourth-century Roman historian, for example, claimed that the Huns were so deformed and ugly that they could be compared to animals. He even referred to Hun customs as rude, and suggested they were dirty and lazy.|2|. This account demonstrates that the Roman's view of the barbarian highlighted differences as a way of disqualifying him.
THE Roman decadence caused their western lands to be occupied by the Germans. What, until the fifth century, was the Western Roman Empire gave way to a series of kingdoms formed by different Germanic peoples: the francs, Visigoths, vandals, Burgundians, Saxons, between others. If you want to know more about this important migratory movement, read: barbarian invasions.
Grades
|1| BRICKLAYER-SÁNCHEZ, Maria Guadalupe. History of the Middle Ages: texts and testimonies. São Paulo: Unesp, 2000. P. 32.
|2| Idem, p. 30-31.
