• Migrations and Conquest: Easy Pictures for Complicated Backgrounds in Ancient and Medieval Structures

    Author(s):
    Roland Steinacher (see profile)
    Date:
    2012
    Group(s):
    Early Medieval, Greek and Roman Intellectual History, Late Antiquity
    Item Type:
    Book chapter
    Tag(s):
    Roman, Romance cultures
    Permanent URL:
    http://dx.doi.org/10.17613/c40t-he32
    Abstract:
    We must, first of all, ask what a barbarian is or could have been in our sources. There were different kinds of barbarians, based upon the Roman and Greek ethnographic tradition and view of geography. Greek writers defined identities of human societies in the known world and bequeathed ethnonyms. Since the sixth and fifth centuries B.C.E., these categories were most often little more than learned constructions. Greek ethnographers like Hekataios, Herodotus and Eratosthenes of Cyrene categorized the world north of the Alps as a western Keltike (Κελτική) and an eastern Scythike (Σκυθική) with the river Tanais (Don) as its frontier. Only Celts and Scyths were known as the two ethne (ἔθνη) living in the northern part of the inhabited world. Ethne was understood as greater groups of peoples.
    Metadata:
    Published as:
    Book chapter    
    Status:
    Published
    Last Updated:
    4 years ago
    License:
    All Rights Reserved

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