Category Archives: (02) Greek and Roman perspectives and stereotypes on other peoples

Amazons, Tibarenians, and Mossynoikians: Apollonios of Rhodes on a voyage to the Kolchians (third century BCE)

Arabians, Trogodytes, and peoples around the Red Sea: Eratosthenes, Artemidoros, and Strabo on their locations and customs (early first century CE)

Arabians: Strabo and Josephos on Itureans as a supposed bandit-people (first century CE)

Armenians: Kyrsilos and Strabo on a Thessalian origin story, on worship of Anahita and on supposed sacred prostitution (early first century CE)

Asian Albanians, Iberians, Mardians and others: Demodamas and Pliny the Elder on peoples in the Caucasus region and further east (third century BCE / first century CE)

Assyrians, Babylonians, and surrounding peoples: Strabo on their customs (early first century CE)

Assyrians, Chaldeans, Egyptians, Celts, and others: The Cicero brothers on the nature and effectiveness of divination (mid-first century BCE)

Assyrians, Medes and Persians: Ktesias on Persian Matters via Diodoros and Photios (early fourth century BCE)

Assyrians, Medes, Persians, Macedonians, and Parthians: Polyhistor, Bion and Agathias on a succession of empires (mid-first century BCE on)

Assyrians: Trogus on the achievements of Ninos and Semiramis and on the extreme effeminacy of Sardanapalus (first century BCE)

Babylonians and Assyrians: Herodotos on legendary queens and outstanding customs (mid-fifth century BCE)

Barbaria’s inhabitants, Arabians, and Indians: Anonymous author on trade and peoples on the Erythraian sea all the way to eastern India (mid-first century CE)

Barbarian peoples: Hellanikos, Nymphodoros, Nikolaos, and others with collections of “barbarian customs” (fifth century BCE on)

Barbarians and Greeks: Thucydides theorizes the shift from barbarian banditry to settled civilization (late fifth century BCE)

Carians, Galatians, Halizonians, and others: Ephoros and Apollodoros of Athens on Anatolian peoples (mid-fourth century BCE on)

Carians: Strabo on long-term interactions with Greeks and on “Carianizing” (early first century CE)

Carthaginians: Plato, Aristotle, Polybios and others on their character and communal organization (fourth century BCE on)

Celts: Appian of Alexandria on their character and on ambassadorial relations with Romans (second century CE)

Colchians, Phrygians, and others: Vitruvius theorizes development from primitives to civilized peoples (first century BCE)

Cretans, Spartans, Carthaginians, and Romans: Polybios on superior and inferior societal organization (second century BCE)

Daans, Kadousians, Hyrkanians, and Sakians: Strabo on peoples east of the Caspian Sea (first century CE)

Egyptian wisdom: Plutarch on wise Egyptian priests and on Isis and Osiris (early second century CE)

Egyptians, Lydians, Cilicians, and other peoples: Kratinos, Aristophanes, Suetonius and others on “Egyptianizing” and other ethnicizing stereotypes (sixth century BCE on)

Egyptians: Attic vase paintings, Isocrates and others on king Bousiris and human sacrifice (fifth century BCE on)

Egyptians: Diodoros on the origins of civilization and on Egyptian views (mid-first century BCE)

Egyptians: Herodotos on customs and legendary kings (fifth century BCE)

Ethiopians and Thracians: Xenophon of Kolophon theorizes human representations of gods (sixth century BCE)

Ethiopians: Agatharchides and Diodoros on lifestyles and diets in the extreme south (second-first centuries BCE)

Ethiopians: Herodotos on southern peoples at the ends of the earth (mid-fifth century BCE)

Europeans and Asians: Pseudo-Hippokrates on humoural and environmental theories (fifth century BCE)

Europeans, Asians, and Greeks: Aristotle on hierarchies, slaves, and environmental determinism (fourth century BCE)

Gauls, Kimbrians, Numidians, Indians, and others: Valerius Maximus’ collection of “barbarian customs” (early first century CE)

Germans, Britons, and Indians: Strabo on travelers, soldiers and merchants as sources of information (early first century CE)

Germans, Suebians, Marcomannians, and Kimbrians: Poseidonios and Strabo on customs and rumours about the tides (first century BCE)

Getians, Dacians, and Scythians: Strabo (early first century CE)

Getians, Scythians, and Goths: Jordanes on their supposed origins and achievements (mid-sixth century CE)

Iberians and others: Avienus on a journey along the southern coast of Spain (mid-fourth century CE)

Iberians, Albanians and others of the Caucasus area: Strabo (early first century CE)

Iberians: Diodoros on Viriathus and the Lusitanians’ resistance to Roman rule (mid-first century BCE)

Ichthyophagians: Nearchos and Agatharchides on Fish-eaters around the Arabian Sea (fourth-first centuries BCE)

Indians, Ethiopians, and Iberians: Poseidonios and Strabo on Eudoxos of Kyzikos’ expeditions (first centuries BCE and CE)

Indians, Ethiopians, Celts, and Scythians: Ephoros on a four-fold division of the known world (mid-fourth century BCE)

Indians: Herodotos on eastern peoples at the ends of the earth (mid-fifth century BCE)

Indians: Megasthenes, Aristoboulos, Onesikritos, and Strabo on Indian customs and on Brahmans (fourth century BCE-early first century CE)

Italic peoples: Antiochos of Syracuse on migrations of peoples to and within Italy (late fifth century BCE)

Italic peoples: Cato, Livy, and Florus on Sabines, Samnites, and others (early second century BCE on)

Italic peoples: Strabo on Latins, Sabines, Samnites, Umbrians, Lucanians, and others (early first century CE)

Judean wisdom: Josephos’ Against Apion in full (late first century CE)

Judean, Persian, and Indian wisdom: Philo on the freedom of Essenes and Kalanos (early first century CE)

Judeans and Celts: Various authors on Claudius’ actions against foreigners in the 40s CE (second / third centuries CE

Judeans, “Asiatics”, and Greeks: Cicero’s ethnic invective aimed at eastern witnesses against Flaccus (mid-first century BCE)

Judeans, Egyptians, and Magians: Various authors on Tiberius’ actions against foreign practices 17-19 CE (first-third centuries CE)

Judeans, Syrians, Celts, Scythians and others: Plutarch on the “barbarian” origins of fearing the gods, or “superstition” (early second century CE)

Judeans, Syrians, Indians, and others: Porphyry of Tyre on abstinence from meat (third century CE)

Judeans: Hekataios, pseudo-Hekataios and Diodoros on Judean origins and migration with the exodus (first century BCE)

Judeans: Mnaseas, Poseidonios, Apollonios Molon, Diodoros, Apion, and Damokritos on the statue of a donkey and on human sacrifice (second century BCE and on)

Judeans: Strabo on decline after Moses and banditry (early first century CE)

Karmanians, Ichthyophagians, and others: Nearchos, Onesikritos, Juba, and Pliny on the area around the Persian Gulf and Red Sea (fourth century BCE-first century CE)

Kimmerians and Kolchians: Herodotos on other Pontic peoples (mid-fifth century BCE)

Kolchians, Heniochians, Drillians, and others: Arrian on his journey along the Black Sea coast near the Caucasus mountains (ca. 131-132 CE)

Libyans / Africans: Tacitus on Tacfarinas and resistance by Numidians, Maurians, and Musulamians (early second century CE)

Libyans and Ausourianians: Synesios on years of incursions into Cyrenaica (early fifth century CE)

Libyans: Dionysios of Mytilene and Diodoros on competing claims about the god Dionysos (third / mid-first century BCE)

Libyans: Dionysios of Mytilene and Diodoros on Nasamonians, Marmaridians, and Libyan Amazons (third / mid-first century BCE)

Libyans: Eratosthenes, Artemidoros, and Strabo on peoples and customs (early first century CE)

Libyans: Herodotos on customs and colonization (fifth century BCE)

Lycians, Lydians, and Egyptians: Pseudo-Plutarch on the effeminacy of grief (third-fourth centuries CE)

Lycians, Pamphylians, and Cilicians: Strabo contrasts civilized and uncivilized peoples in southern Anatolia (early first century CE)

Lycians: Menekrates of Xanthos and Polycharmos on Lycian origins and the practice of fish-divination (late fifth century BCE on)

Lydians: Herodotos on king Croesus and Lydian customs (mid-fifth century BCE)

Lydians: Xanthos of Lydia on kings and luxurious customs (mid-fifth century BCE)

Maiotians, Bosporians, Kaukasians, and other Pontic peoples: Strabo on northern Asia (early first century CE)

Medes, Assyrians, Baktrians, and others: Herodotos on the mixed composition of the Persian army under Xerxes (fifth century BCE)

Medes: Nearchos and Strabo on neighbouring bandit-peoples and on Median customs (early first century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Artemidoros theorizes foreign elements in dreams (second century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Augustus on his own achievements, conquests and alliances with peoples (14 CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Claudius Ptolemy on astrological effects on peoples (second century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Diodoros, Pliny and Plutarch on Pompey’s subjugation of peoples of the world (mid-first century BCE on)

Mediterranean peoples: Maximus of Tyre on images for the gods as ubiquitous among peoples (late second century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Pausanias, ethnographic interests, and local traditions (mid-second century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Pomponius Mela on peoples of the known world (mid-first century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Pseudo-Skylax (fourth century BCE)

Mediterranean peoples: Pseudo-Skymnos’ Voyage Around the Earth for Nikomedes in full (mid-second century BCE)

Mediterranean peoples: Sextus Empiricus engages with ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (second-third centuries CE)

Mysians, Galatians, Pisidians, and others: Strabo on relations among Anatolian peoples (early first century CE)

Northern peoples: Antonios Diogenes’ “Wonders Beyond Thule” and ethnographic fiction (second century CE / ninth century CE)

Northern peoples: Inscriptions on barbarians as bandits (second-third centuries CE)

Panchaians: Euhemeros and Diodoros on a noble people worshipping Zeus on a utopian island (fourth / first century BCE)

Parthians and Scythians: Julius Africanus on barbarian military techniques (early third century CE)

Pelasgians, Lelegians, and others: Hekataios of Miletos and Strabo on barbarians of Greece (sixth century BCE on)

Persian diasporas: Pseudo-Clement, Eusebios, Epiphanios, and Basil on the Magusaeans and their customs (third century CE on)

Persians and Medes: Douris, Herakleides, Klearchos, and others on royal banquets (fifth-fourth centuries BCE)

Persians and neighbouring eastern peoples: Ammianus Marcellinus on Persian territories and lifestyles (late fourth century CE)

Persians and peoples in their territory: Strabo on their customs and on bandit peoples (early first century CE)

Persians, Babylonians, and Egyptians: Pseudo-Clementines on Zoroaster and the origins of Magian skill (second-fourth centuries CE)

Persians, Celts, Thracians, and others: Polyainos on “tricky” barbarians (mid-second century CE)

Persians, Hyrkanians, Armenians, Derbikians and others: Curtius Rufus on the mixed composition of the army of Darius III (first century CE)

Persians, Tyrrhenians and Lycians: Plutarch on brave women and effeminate men (early second century CE)

Persians: Matthew and Luke-Acts on two contrasting approaches to Magians (late first century CE)

Persians: Pliny on the dissemination of Magian skill to the peoples of the world (first century CE)

Phoenician diasporas: Timaios of Tauromenion, Trogus, and Appian on Tyrians, on the founding of Carthage and on child sacrifice (first century BCE)

Phrygians: Alexander Polyhistor, Hermogenes, and others on Phrygian Matters (first century BCE on)

Pontic peoples: Phlyarchos on traits and customs of Thibians and Scythians (early second century BCE)