iirc 'barbarian' comes from a slur. "Those foreigners sound like sheep when they talk. Baa baa baa."
this post was submitted on 17 Feb 2026
8 points (78.6% liked)
AskHistorians
1263 readers
2 users here now
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
By Roman times it was a neutral word for all non-Romans (including respected allies), and not a slur per se.
The general impression I’ve gotten (mostly from late Roman sources) is that you’d draw on names from ancient historical or mythological references to imply a parallel to your current opponents—but the reference needed to be relevant to the current context; there wasn’t a generic label that was always used for each group.
Part of the object was to show off the writer’s literary knowledge, though, so it was probably restricted to the literate class.
Just so I am understanding this correctly does this mean that Homer or Socrates or Plato would be the ones to throw out wicked burns? No sarcasm and thank you for your response
I’m mostly familiar with late Roman sources, which aren’t really representative of classical Greece.
I don’t think there’s anything along those lines in Plato (and therefore Socrates) in any case, though, because the speakers in his dialogues are usually trying to explain their reasoning clearly rather than showing off their literary prowess or making ad hominem arguments. And as for Homer (and Hesiod, and playwrights dealing with mythological subjects), I don’t think it was common to portray mythological figures insulting each other by implying parallels to other myths, but I could be wrong. The places I’d expect to see it, if anywhere, would be things like political orations and comic plays, but I’m not familiar enough with classical Greek sources to think of any examples.
Lindsey Davis has written over 20 novels about 'public investigators' in old Roman times. One of the things she's mentioned in essays is that there's very little recorded slang from that era. She assumption is that if you're going to the trouble of writing a scroll by hand [or having an expensive scribe do it for you] you're going to try and look as educated as you can; kind of how you're probably not going to see bumper stickers on a Bentley.
The Latin word furcifer literally means "yoke-bearer" as a pejorative/slur for slaves. Latin textbooks tend to translate it as scoundrel or something tame like that, so it was probably generalised as an insult.