barbari
➳ gén. pl. barbarum Nep. Milt. 2, 1 ; Alc. 7, 4 ; Phædr. 4, 7, 11 ; Sen. Clem. 1, 26, 5 ; Tac. Ann. 14, 39 ; 15, 25.
Si non venerit hora prandii, nisi causa legitima ipsum excuset, nihil de companagio sibi ministretur ; sed Barbatur juxta vulgare aliorum collegiorum.
Βάρβαροι was originally the Greek epithet for a people speaking any language but Greek. Its origin is onomatopoetic, since it is an attempt to imitate the confused sounds of a foreign language. It was not until after the Persian Wars that the name began to carry with it associations of hatred and contempt, and to imply vulgarity and want of cultivation. The national feeling of the Greeks had then risen to such intensity that they deemed themselves above all other peoples in gifts and culture, and looked down upon them with a sense of superiority.
The Romans were originally, like other non-Hellenic peoples, included by the Greeks under the name of barbari. But after the conquest of Greece, and the transference of Hellenic art and culture to Rome, the Romans took up the same position as the Greeks before them, and designated as barbarians all the nations who differed in language and manners from the Graeco-Roman world.