Category Archives: (b) Southern peoples

Assyrian / Babylonian wisdom: Sibyl of Babylon on the superiority of the Judean people (second century BCE)

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

Axumite perspectives: Inscription by the king of Axum on the Ethiopian and Arabian peoples he conquered (late-second or early-third century CE)

Babylonian diasporas: Josephos and others on legends of migration from Babel (first-second centuries CE)

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: Nymphodoros, Nikolaos, and others with collections of paradoxical customs (third century BCE on)

Barbarians and Greeks: Eratosthenes challenges the dichotomy (third century BCE)

Carthaginians: Appian of Alexandria (mid-second century CE)

Chaldeans, Greeks, Egyptians, and Judeans: Aristides of Athens (second century CE)

Egyptian diasporas: Inscriptional evidence

Egyptian perspectives: Chairemon on Egyptian temple functionaries (first century CE)

Egyptian perspectives: Manetho on Egyptian Matters (early third century BCE)

Egyptian wisdom: Alexander Romance on king Nektanebos the astrologer and diviner (fourth century CE and earlier)

Egyptian wisdom: Cicero, Diodoros and Valerius Maximus on Pythagoras’ and Plato’s supposed journeys to Egypt (first centuries BCE and CE)

Egyptian wisdom: Lucian’s story about Eukrates and Pankrates (late second century CE)

Egyptian wisdom: Plato on Solon, the Egyptian priest, and Atlantis (mid-fourth century BCE)

Egyptian wisdom: Plato’s Socrates on the discoveries of the Egyptian god Thoth (fourth century BCE)

Egyptian wisdom: Thessalos on king Nechepsos and an Egyptian priest (first or second century CE)

Egyptians, Taurians, and Celts: Cicero’s Philus engages in ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (mid-first century BCE)

Egyptians: Cicero on superstition and animal-worship (mid-first century BCE)

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

Egyptians: Josephos on animal worship (late first century CE)

Egyptians: The Judean tale of Joseph and Aseneth on rejecting Egyptian gods and on intermarriage (ca. first century CE)

Ethiopians or Nubians: Athenian-style pottery depictions of darker-skinned subjects (sixth-fifth centuries BCE)

Ethiopians or Nubians: Pottery from Athens and Greek cities of Italy depicting a darker-skinned youth devoured by a crocodile (fifth-fourth centuries BCE)

Ethiopians, Nubians, and Egyptians: Christian authors picturing darker-skinned peoples as “demons” (second century CE on)

Ethiopians: Artapanos and Josephos on Moses, intermarriage, and the Kushites (second century BCE-first century CE)

Ethiopians: Palladios and others on Abba Moses the former bandit with darker skin (fourth-fifth centuries CE)

Ethnic diversity in Libya / Africa: Sallust on legends of migration (mid-first century BCE)

Greek diasporas and indigenous Libyans: Herodotos on tales of colonization (mid-fifth century BCE)

Indian wisdom: Alexander Polyhistor and Clement of Alexandria (VII) on the Brahmans and naked sages (first century BCE / late second century CE)

Indians, Ethiopians and others: Pliny the Elder on “unbelievable” peoples (first century CE)

Indians: Curtius Rufus on the environment and the peoples (first century CE)

Judeans, Syrians, and Egyptians: Epiktetos engages with ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (mid-first century CE)

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

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

Libyan perspectives: Apuleius self-identifies as a barbarian and Numidian / Gaetulian (mid-second century CE)

Libyan perspectives: Cornelius Fronto self-identifies as a “barbarian” and Libyan nomad (mid-second century CE)

Libyans / Africans: Pliny on various peoples and strange customs (first century CE)

Libyans / Africans: Sallust (mid-first century BCE)

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 and Maurians: Corippus’ poetic survey of northern African peoples in the tale of John Troglita (after 548 CE)

Libyans, Assyrians and Arabians: Kleodemos and Josephos on Abraham and Keturah’s descendants and their many colonies (second or first century BCE on)

Libyans, Egyptians, Iberians, and Celts: Diodoros on Herakles’ civilizing expeditions (mid-first century BCE)

Libyans, Maurians and Ausourianians: Ammianus Marcellinus on their savage behaviour and banditry (late fourth century CE)

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

Libyans: Hanno the Carthaginian (fourth century BCE or earlier)

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

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: Dionysios of Alexandria’s poetic Guide to the Inhabited World (117-138 CE)

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

Mediterranean peoples: Pliny the Elder on inventors around the world (first century CE)

Mediterranean peoples: Polemon theorizes the meaning of physical features (second / fifth centuries CE)

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

Mediterranean peoples: Pseudo-Aristotle theorizes the meaning of physical features (third century BCE)

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: Roman coins [part 1] on defeat, capture, and subjugation (first century BCE on)

Mediterranean peoples: Roman coins [part 3] on kneeling in supplication or adoration (first century BCE on)

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

Mediterranean peoples: Vitruvius on the effects of climate (first century BCE)

Persian, Egyptian, Indian, and Celtic wisdom: Dio of Prusa on philosophers’ roles in leadership (late first century CE)

Phoenicians and Sardinians: Cicero’s ethnic invective in defending Marcus Scaurus (mid-first century BCE)

Romans, Egyptians, Persians, and others: Minucius Felix’s ethnographic defence of the Christian people (early third century CE)

Scythians and Ethiopians: Agatharchides and Diodoros theorize about the effects of climate (second-first centuries CE)

Troglodytes: Graffiti and inscriptions from the Red Sea area thanking Pan / Min for rescue from Cave-dwellers (second century BCE)

Various peoples: Polybios on the mixed composition of Ptolemy IV’s and Antiochos III’s armies (second century BCE)