In ancient Greece, the word barbarian was used to refer to people who did not speak Greek, who were foreigners, and whose language resembled a simple babbling of syllables and words (apparently from the Greeks, for whom «barbarian» meant “he who babbles”). Over time, the Romans gave that name to the people who invaded the Roman Empire., giving greater context to the question of who the barbarians were. That is why today, at , we precisely want to explore with you who exactly the barbarians were and discover everything necessary about them. Can you come with us? 😊
Who were the barbarians: discover all their secrets
1. Barbarian peoples
Already in the introduction it seems to have been clear that to answer who the barbarians were, it is worth taking into account that for the Romans they corresponded to all foreign peoples; those who neither belonged to the peoples conquered by the Empire nor spoke Latin or Greek. Therefore, we can say that the barbarians were not only European, but also came from foreign lands in Africa and Asia.
These barbarian populations had warrior cultures and Indo-European roots. They lived from livestock and agriculture, but because they lived in the northern areas, andThe cold and scarcity led them to occupy a greater number of territories. To have a clearer idea of who the barbarians were, it may help us to remember some of the best-known barbarian peoples:
- The angles (the best allies of the Saxons).
- The Visigoths (they withdrew from Italy and settled in southern Gaul).
- The francs (they were located in the north of Gaul and adopted the Catholic faith).
- The ostrogoths (they held power).
- The vandals (they devastated Gaul and settled in North Africa).
- The Germans (the Goths).
- The Saxons (they settled in Britain without adapting their own customs).
2. How did the barbarians live?
At first, these people lived isolated from the Greek people and the empires (such as the Roman, Persian and Chinese), therefore acquiring customs of nomadic peoples. Parallel to the formation of the Roman Empire, these peoples were settling and assuming agricultural traditions.
To understand who the barbarians were, it is necessary to know that they lived in usually cold and infertile areas (what we generally know today as the Nordic countries). It is for this reason that They began to invade other territoriesalthough not with the intention of staying and settling, but rather of making profits from what was stolen, whether it was food or goods with which they could trade.
The barbarians of Northern Europe were later also known as Vikings. All of these peoples were even able to modify their own language, since they came to mix it with Latin, which was the language spoken in the regions they occupied. They were also generally respectful of the Roman culture which they annexed to their own.
3. Barbarian invasions
With the death of Theodosius I the Great (who declared Christianity as the official religion), The Roman Empire was divided between his two sons: Honorius and Arcadius.. While Honorius took charge of the western region, whose capital was Rome (here you can see what to see in Rome), Arcadius was left with the eastern region and his capital, which was Constantinople. After this, a series of peoples whom the Romans called “barbarians” occupied the western territory until they achieved dethrone the last emperor of Rome, in the year 476.
But the barbarian invasions had begun much earlier: already between the 1st and 2nd centuries AD The people the Romans called «barbarians» had taken advantage of the empire’s weaknesses.. The difference between these first invasions of the Roman Empire by barbarian peoples is that the first were simply to plunder and enslave, while the second resulted in the settlement of several «barbarian» communities that would later give rise to several crowns. European.
In addition to Who Were the Barbarians, don’t miss…
If you want to continue knowing who the barbarians were, we recommend that you Don’t miss our entry on The Barbarian Invasions: You will not only delve into the identity of the barbarian peoples, but also into the decline of the Roman Empire and the consequences on European culture.
Before we say goodbye, We encourage you to leave us a comment with all your impressions and contributions. Tell us, did you know who the barbarians were? What other facts about barbarian invasions do you know? Have you seen any barbarian movies? What do you think of the relationship of the barbarians with the Viking peoples and with the European crowns? Do you want to tell us some more curiosities about who the barbarians were? We will be waiting for your comments to read them with great interest! 😊