Citation with stable link: Philip A. Harland, 'Greek diasporas: Aristoxenos of Tarentum on barbarizing to Tyrrhenian ways (fourth century BCE),' Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, last modified June 6, 2024, https://philipharland.com/Blog/?p=19314.
Ancient authors: Aristoxenos of Tarentum (fourth century BCE), Miscellaneous Table-talk, as cited by Athenaios of Athens (early third century CE), Sophists at Dinner 632a (link; link to Greek).
Comments: Aristoxenos of Tarentum was a student of Aristotle in the fourth century BCE who is known best for his writing on music. In this citation by Athenaeus, Aristoxenos laments the loss of the good old days when people gave sufficient attention to musical matters. In the process, Aristoxenos claims that there was a Greek colony on the western coast of Italy which over time became completely “barbarized” to Tyrrhenian or Roman ways. The story goes that these Greeks still had at least one festival when they remembered what they had lost. This offers an interesting glimpse into ruminations about the dangers of acculturation by Greeks to the ways of surrounding peoples in colonial settings.
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(14.632a) Formerly, beauty was carefully attended to in music, and everything in this skill had its suitable and appropriate ornament . . . But in our days artists make the objects of their art to be the gaining the applause of the spectators in the theatre, which is why Aristoxenos, in his book entitled Miscellaneous Table-talk, says:
“We act in a manner similar to the Poseidonians [i.e. Greeks of Paestum, Italy] who live on the Tyrrhenian bay. While they were originally Greeks, it happened that they eventually became completely barbarized (ekbebarbarōsthai), becoming Tyrrhenians [Etruscans] or Romans. They changed their language and all the rest of their habits (epitēdeumata). But they do still today celebrate one Greek festival in which they meet and recollect all their ancient names and customs (nomima). They mourn the loss of these with one another, and then, when they have wept for them, they go home. And so (Aristoxenos says), since the theatres have become completely barbarized and since music has become entirely ruined and vulgar, we also, being only a few, will recall to our minds, sitting by ourselves, what music once was.”
This was Aristoxenos’ discourse.
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Source of translation: C.D. Yonge, The Deipnosophists or Banquet of the Learned of Athenaeus, 3 vols. (London: H. G. Bohn, 1853), public domain, adapted by Harland.