What did the ancient Greeks and Romans think of the peoples they referred to as barbari ? Did they share the modern Western conception-popularized in modern fantasy literature and role-playing games-of "barbarians" as brutish, unwashed enemies of civilization? Or our related notion of "the noble savage?" Was the category fixed or fluid? How did it contrast with the Greeks and Romans' conception of their own cultural identity? Was it based on race? In accessible, jargon-free prose, Erik Jensen addresses these and other questions through a copiously illustrated introduction to the varied and evolving ways in which the ancient Greeks and Romans engaged with, and thought about, foreign peoples-and to the recent historical and archaeological scholarship that has overturned received understandings of the relationship of Classical civilization to its "others."
- ISBN10 1624667139
- ISBN13 9781624667138
- Publish Date 15 September 2018
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Hackett Publishing Co, Inc
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 312
- Language English