How Thucydides Described Greeks and “Barbarians” in the Northern Settlements

The Ancient Greek historiographer Thucydides did not presumption Macedonians arsenic “barbarians.” Photo of Thucydides statue gracing the Austrian Parliament. Credit: Gerd Eichmann CC BY-SA 4.0

Thucydides, the Ancient Greek historiographer and wide defined the identities of Greeks and “barbarians” specifically successful narration to the bluish settlements based connected their geography, politics, and grade of Greek taste influence.

Researcher Ioannis Xydopoulos, prof of Ancient Greek History astatine the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, argues that the bluish colonies successful the bluish Aegean and the Propontis importantly shaped however confederate Greeks perceived Macedonians and different peoples successful bluish Greece and beyond.

In his insubstantial “The Concept and Representation of Northern Communities successful Ancient Greek Historiography: The Case of Thucydides,” Xydopoulos examines however Thucydides represented Macedonians, Thracians, and different groups inhabiting the coastal regions of the bluish Aegean, arsenic good arsenic however confederate Greeks conceptualized them based connected Thucydides’ criteria of ethnicity.

The past Greek historiographer did not represent Macedonians and Thracians arsenic exotic oregon barbarian, nor did helium enactment crisp distinctions successful spiritual practices betwixt Athenians and bluish Greeks. The play studied spans from the mediate of the 5th period BC to the extremity of the Peloponnesian War successful 404 BC, during which Athenians’ perceptions of bluish peoples were framed by the broader Greek-barbarian distinction.

Hellas, Hellenes, and barbarians

Edith Hall, Professor of Classics astatine King’s College London, argues that the favoritism betwixt a Hellen (Greek) and a barbarian existed adjacent anterior to Homer’s Iliad (725–675 BC). These 2 notions developed simultaneously betwixt the 8th and precocious 6th centuries BC, laying the groundwork for Greek self-identification. The Persian Wars further reinforced this emerging identity, establishing a corporate Panhellenic consciousness. Although a consciousness of ethnicity already existed successful the Archaic period, the conflicts and taste encounters of the Persian Wars intensified the polarization betwixt Greeks and barbarians.

There were linguistic reasons for distinguishing a Greek from a barbarian. Greek speakers could admit themselves arsenic chiseled from speakers of non-Greek languages during the Archaic period. Reflections of this linguistic quality look successful archaic literature. The beingness and usage of the connection “barbaros” successful literate sources up to the 5th period BC further supports this hypothesis. Archaic lit contains astatine slightest 3 passages wherever “barbaros” oregon its derivatives are used.

In the Iliad (2.867), the word “barbarophonos,” meaning “a talker of a overseas language,” refers to the Carians, portion barbaros appears successful an opaque fragment of Heraclitus of Ephesus (22, B 107). This is capable grounds of the Greeks’ consciousness of their linguistic and taste favoritism from different taste groups.

A akin favoritism appears successful the works of the lyric writer Pindar. He celebrated victories against barbarians but besides utilized the word culturally to occasionally denote groups oregon behaviors considered foreign, specified arsenic the Carthaginians and Etruscans, arsenic successful 1 of his odes honoring a Sicilian king.

Along with illustrating the humanities improvement of the connection “barbaros” itself, these sources enactment the statement that the Greek–barbarian favoritism existed successful the Archaic period, adjacent though the stark absorption betwixt Greek and barbarian did not afloat germinate until the 5th period BC.

Homer did not usage the corporate “Hellenes” successful the Iliad

From the 8th period BC onward, populations became much sedentary, and the conception of territory evolved. Two cardinal factors explicate wherefore the Greeks prioritized connection arsenic the criterion for defining their taste identity.

Firstly, aft colonization westwards, Greek speakers could reliably separate themselves from those who spoke a antithetic language. During the Archaic period, determination was a sizeable grade of enactment betwixt Greeks and the peoples they would aboriginal categorize arsenic “barbarians.” For instance, Themistocles’ parent was either from Thrace oregon Caria, portion Cimon’s parent was a Thracian princess. Secondly, privileging the linguistic criterion for taste self-determination helped antagonistic the heterogeneity of Greek societal customs, governmental allegiances, cults, and traditions, which varied among Dorian, Ionian, and Aeolian communities.

Although Homer’s epics offered the Greeks an ordered practice of their past, they besides bespeak a clip erstwhile Greeks did not usage a corporate name, specified arsenic Hellenes, to picture themselves. In the Iliad, the assorted taste groups mentioned see the Aetolians, Cretans, and Boeotians. Other corporate presumption utilized comprise the Achaeans (occasionally Panachaeans), Argives, and Danaans.

In the Homeric texts, “Hellenes” inactive refers lone to the inhabitants of Hellas, a territory successful Thessaly. Thus, Achilles comes from “Hellas and Pthia” (Iliad 9.395). The word Hellas is constricted to the central-northern geographical portion of Greece.

Between the instauration of Homer’s epics and Hesiod’s Catalogue of Women (Opera et Dies, 653) successful the aboriginal 6th period BC, the value of Hellas shifted to encompass each of mainland Greece. Consequently, they began to place themselves arsenic Greeks. The conception of an extended Greece, therefore, indispensable person existed by astatine slightest the opening of the 7th period BC, and perchance adjacent earlier, according to researchers.

Hellenic self-consciousness and the Ancient Greeks: Background for Thucydides’ perspective

While determination was nary unified conception of Hellas anterior to the 8th period BC, determination is ample grounds that Hellenic self-consciousness emerged betwixt the 8th and 6th centuries BC. Several factors contributed to this development, with colonization playing a large role. By establishing colonies passim the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions, Greeks came into interaction with divers cultures speaking assorted languages.

In these colonies, Greeks maintained beardown ties with their parent cities. The diffusion of the alphabet and the epic poems reinforced Greek linguistic identity. The instauration of Panhellenic institutions and cult centers established a socio-cultural beingness portion providing important channels for ideological expression. A notable illustration was the Olympic Games.

Although the games initially served lone Peloponnesian participants, by the 6th century, competitors from Greek cities arsenic acold afield arsenic Ionia and Sicily participated, and the judges were called the “Hellanodikai,” oregon “Hellenic judges.” The conception of Panhellenic games was important successful fostering a shared Greek identity. In the Odyssey (1.344), the word “Hellas” is utilized to notation to each Greeks collectively, (ἀνδρός, τοῦ κλέος εὐρὺ καθ’ Ἑλλάδα καὶ μέσον Ἄργος).

The word “Hellas” besides appears successful Hesiod (Opera et Dies, 528), Archilochus (Fragment 102), and Pindar (Isthmia II.38; IV.49; Paean 6.62). In these contexts, it signifies that Greeks of divers origins lived unneurotic successful recently founded settlements, further reflecting the emergence of a shared Hellenic identity.

Herodotus and the assorted cultures

Xydopoulos argues that the cardinal alteration betwixt the Archaic and Classical periods was the mechanics of Greek self-definition. During this transition, a stereotypical and generalized representation of the barbarian—as exotic, servile, and unintelligible—became firmly established. Greek individuality could frankincense beryllium constructed successful nonstop absorption to this image. To find the language, culture, oregon rituals of the barbarian profoundly alien was, successful effect, to admit oneself arsenic Greek.

Herodotus’ Histories contributed importantly to the improvement of empirical cognition astir non-Greek peoples, offering elaborate geographical and ethnographic accounts of the populations wrong the Persian Empire’s reach. Although helium described galore customs that seemed unusual to Greek readers, Herodotus presented them with respect, treating each arsenic a reflection of a chiseled taste system.

His writings suggest a nuanced consciousness that the conception of “barbarian” was relative, and they situation the aboriginal idea—emerging aft the Persian Wars—that the Greeks were inherently superior by nature.

The Ancient Greek historiographer Thucydides and barbarians

While Herodotus suggested that a antithetic civilization was not needfully barbaric, Thucydides viewed Greeks and barbarians arsenic polar opposites. In his statement of the Eurytanians, who made up a ample portion of the Aetolian ethnos, Thucydides reflects broader Athenian prejudices toward bluish Greece arsenic a whole.

His remark that the Eurytanians “spoke a wholly chartless lingua and ate earthy meat” (Thuc. III.94.5) underscores the usage of linguistic and taste criteria to separate betwixt Greeks and the Eurytanian “other.” Thucydides makes akin observations astir different regions of Ancient Greece: “Up to this date, the radical successful galore parts of Greece—the Ozolian Lokrians, the Aetolians, the Akarnanians, and those of the neighboring mainland—live successful the past manner.”

When it comes to the Macedonians and Thracians of the 5th period BC, the question of individuality becomes much complex. As scholars note, fewer sources supply nonstop grounds of however the Macedonians perceived themselves, and nary written testimonies uncover the self-consciousness of the Thracians. Therefore, since Herodotus and Thucydides are the superior sources for this period, it indispensable beryllium remembered that these identities were mostly constructed and ascribed by confederate Greeks, particularly by Thucydides.

The Macedonians, according to Thucydides

According to the researcher, Thucydides’ references to the Macedonian radical are mostly circumstantial.

In his relationship of Spartan wide Brasidas’ run with the Macedonian king Perdikkas successful Lynkestis, helium writes that “the Chalkidians and Macedonian cavalry [came to] astir a thousand, and determination was besides a ample wide of barbarians.” This raises the question of however Thucydides viewed Macedonian ethnicity: did helium respect the Macedonians arsenic Greeks oregon arsenic barbarians? The English classicist Simon Hornblower, successful his Commentary connected Thucydides, argues that “Thucydides meant to suggest that the Macedonians were intermediate betwixt Greeks and (utter) barbarians.”

However, the researcher notes that Thucydides does not ascribe immoderate explicit antagonistic worth to the Macedonians. As Hornblower observes, Brasidas’ words—or Thucydides’ rendering of them—reflect the benignant of rhetoric a commandant would usage to motivate soldiers earlier battle, alternatively than a literal judgement of ethnicity. It whitethorn besides beryllium argued that it is improbable Thucydides personally viewed the Macedonians arsenic barbarians oregon intermediates, since the royal Macedonian dynasty had already been recognized arsenic Greek successful Herodotus’ writings—a presumption that Thucydides seems to person accepted.

Herodotus and the Macedonians

According to Herodotus, regarding whether the Macedonians were considered barbarians, helium notes successful the Histories that successful the aboriginal 5th period BC, the Macedonian prince—and aboriginal king—Alexander I was allowed to enactment successful the Olympic Games aft proving his Hellenic descent to the Hellanodikai. Admission to and information successful these Panhellenic Games were undisputed markers of “Greekness.”

This raises the question of whether Greek perceptions of the Macedonians were shaped by their analyzable interactions: connected 1 manus with the Greek colonies on the Thermaic Gulf and the Northern Aegean coasts, and connected the different manus with the inhabitants of the Macedonian kingdom itself.

One imaginable mentation for Thucydides’ occasional usage of the word “barbarians” whitethorn prevarication successful these interactions among antithetic peoples, oregon “ethne.” It seems apt that his references bespeak a assemblage discourse successful which conflicts and competitions betwixt section “barbarians” and Greek communities were enacted, alternatively than an implicit judgement of ethnicity.

For example, Thucydides’ relationship of Spartan General Brasidas’ expedition successful the Chalkidike peninsula notes that its cities were inhabited by a mixed colonisation of barbarians (“barbarian ethne”), who spoke Greek alongside their ain languages. In this passage, Thucydides emphasizes the linguistic criterion, though it appears not to person been of cardinal value to him. His usage of the word diglosson (“speaking 2 languages”) should beryllium understood simply arsenic referring to populations who spoke some Greek and non-Greek languages.

The Ancient Greek historiographer Thucydides and his presumption of “barbarians” and Greek-speaking peoples

One important crushed for this linguistic information was that galore of these alleged barbarian towns had been established connected the sites of earlier Greek settlements. Thucydides’ circumstantial presumption of the Macedonians offers penetration into modern Athenian perceptions of the full region. Viewed successful this light, his substance shows, first, that the Macedonians were not classified with the “barbarian ethne,” and second, that Thucydides distinguished betwixt barbarians and those who spoke Greek.

Overall, Thucydides approached the bluish communities of the Macedonians and Thracians from a Hellenic perspective, and helium did not dainty either radical arsenic highly exotic oregon utterly barbarian. Irad Malkin, Professor of Ancient Greek History astatine Tel Aviv University, has argued that this attraction reflects the information that the colonized outskirts of the Greek satellite were not wholly alien but alternatively perceived arsenic extensions of “the same.”

According to the researcher, the Greek satellite was geographically proximate and well-connected done maritime contacts, and its communities could beryllium approached done idiosyncratic relations and trade. Religious practices besides did not contiguous crisp distinctions; the superior differences laic successful rituals and priorities alternatively than successful underlying intelligence outlooks.

By the Classical period, Greeks had developed a wide designation of a corporate “we.” As Xydopoulos concludes, their consciousness of individuality successful opposition to the barbarians rested connected 3 pillars: the assemblage experience, geographical awareness, and governmental affiliation.