"Objectively, [person] was a barbarian" is just an absolutely hilarious sentence because 'barbarian' is by definition a subjective word. It just meant foreigner.

You can't have a barbarian without subjectivity!

Barbarian wasn't even a judgmental term necessarily, Herodotus thought lots of barbarians were cool.

race didn't exist in antiquity it was mostly just 'does that guy speak our language or what'

'you're not from around here, huh. interesting'

That's not to say there wasn't ethnic prejudice, because obviously there was, but it was more an in-group/outgroup thing and wasn't phenotypic. Your family could go from barbarian to Greek in a generation or so without much fuss.

Like, "Aethiopians" (the term for any Black person) were noted as looking different, but there were figures who were firmly considered Greek despite being of Aethiopian ancestry. The Myceneaen kings even claimed descent from a mythical Aethiopian princess (Andromeda).

And Herodotus clearly finds the 'white' Scythians to be as weird and barbarian as the Egyptians, for instance. He thinks of both cultures as basically interesting space aliens. "They drink milk! Who does that?"

Yeah it absolutely has a negative connotation but only in the sense that the Greeks thought they were better than everybody else! On a cultural level. It's just funny to think anyone would be 'objectively' a barbarian. https://twitter.com/RachelNeedsANap/status/1294650616778645512

i spelled mycenaean wrong above, please forgive me classics professors it's a lot of vowels in a row

As a friend who is locked on here noted in the replies, one especially funny thing about Ancient Greek art is you can tell who's supposed to be a barbarian because they'll be depicted wearing pants, which were seen as very uncivilized.

they also loved depicting various barbarian hats

yeah, small dicks were considered prettier and more civilized, so barbarians were often given huge hogs in art if they were shown nude and therefore couldn't be identified via trousers. some very secure greek guy established that cultural norm i imagine https://twitter.com/0udemia/status/1294653435791515651

The Romans absolutely kept this thing going, yes! Rome was even more ethnically diverse, though, because of all the conquering, so the categories became more even mutable over time. https://twitter.com/HapaxLegoman/status/1294653434831015936

I must mention my client @CassRMorris has a wonderful historical fantasy series, The Aven Cycle, set in an alt version of Ancient Rome -- impeccably researched & accurately depicts the ethnic diversity of the time. Book 2, GIVE WAY TO NIGHT, pubs in Nov! https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/549674/give-way-to-night-by-cass-morris/

I was drawn to @CassRMorris's work first and foremost due to her beautiful prose and lovable characters, but what really made the Aven Cycle *pop* for me, as a former classicist, was the way she depicts Rome as a complex cosmopolitan place. Felt very relevant to modern America.

anyway thank you viral genghis khan-cancelling lady for giving me an excuse to classics tweet