Judeans, Syrians, Indians, and others: Porphyry of Tyre on abstinence from meat (third century CE)
Barbarian wisdom: Porphyry of Tyre’s Neoplatonic perspective (third century CE)
Phoenicians: Gospel of Mark on Jesus and a Syro-Phoenician woman (late first century CE)
Cretans: Stereotypes in the letter to Titus (early second century CE)
Parthians, Libyans, Egyptians and others: Acts of the Apostles on legends of Judean migration (early second century CE)
Scythians and barbarians: Colossians and others on ritual recitations (late first or early second century CE)
Britons, Armenians, Bessians, and others: Reliefs of subjugated peoples at Aphrodisias (first century CE)
Indian wisdom: Nearchos, Megasthenes, and Arrian on the sages Dandamis and Kalanos (fourth century BCE-second century CE)
Judean, Indian, Babylonian, and Egyptian wisdom: Numenius the Platonic philosopher (mid-second century CE)
Illyrians, Pannonians, and other peoples: Strabo (early first century CE)
Getians, Dacians, and Scythians: Strabo (early first century CE)
Persians and Medes: Herodotos on customs (mid-fifth century BCE)
Barbarian wisdom: Cornutus on early humanity’s Stoic understanding of the cosmos (mid-first century CE)
Mediterranean peoples: Sextus Empiricus engages with ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (second-third centuries CE)
Western peoples beyond the pillars of Herakles (and up): Lucian’s “A True Story” and ethnographic fiction (late second century CE)
Northern peoples: Antonios Diogenes’ “Wonders Beyond Thule” and ethnographic fiction (second century CE / ninth century CE)
Indians: Iamboulos and Diodoros on a utopian island beyond India (mid-first century BCE)
Arabians / Nabateans: Diodoros on Nabatean customs and freedom (mid-first century BCE)
Judean and Israelite diasporas: Inscriptional evidence (second century BCE-third century CE)
Babylonians: Diodoros on Chaldeans’ astrology and divination (mid-first century BCE)
Parthians: Scenes from the Arch of Septimius Severus (early third century CE)
Scythians, Amazons, and Persians: Isocrates on the superiority of the Athenian people (early fourth century BCE)
Mossynoikians in Pontos: Xenophon and others on the “most barbarous” people (early fourth century BCE)
Persians: Xenophon and an anonymous author on royal customs and Cyrus (early fourth century BCE / second century BCE)
Celts and Germans: Plutarch’s ethnographic digressions in the Lives (early second century CE)
Scythians, Amazons, and Hyperboreans: Diodoros on some northerners (mid-first century BCE)
Indians: Diodoros on environment, customs and social organization (mid-first century BCE)
Scythians and other Pontic peoples: Herodotos on the “most ignorant peoples of all” (fifth century BCE)
Britons and Iernians (Irish): Julius Caesar, Pytheas, and Strabo on customs including eating human flesh (early first century CE)
Celts and Ligurians: Strabo on peoples south of the Alps (early first century CE)
Indian wisdom: Philostratos on Apollonios of Tyana’s journeys to barbarian lands (early third century CE)
Mysians, Cilicians, Galatians, and Thracians: Polybios on the mixed composition of Antiochos IV Epiphanes’ army (second century BCE)
Egyptian diasporas: Manetho, Josephos and others on legends of migration concerning Hyksos and Judeans (third century BCE and on)
Ethnic diversity in Libya / Africa: Sallust on legends of migration (mid-first century BCE)
Phoenician diasporas: Ephoros on Kadmos and legends of migration to Boiotia (mid-fourth century BCE)
Celts: Strabo on peoples northwest of the Alps (early first century CE)
Ethiopians: Diodoros on their claims, appearance, and customs (mid-first century BCE)
Arabians: Herodotos on deities and lifestyle (late fifth century BCE)
Egyptians: Diodoros on the origins of civilization and on Egyptian views (mid-first century BCE)
Scythians: Greek depictions of Scythian archers on Attic pottery (sixth century BCE)
Parthians, Celts and Iberians or Germans: Scenes on the breastplate of the “Augustus of Prima Porta” (early first century CE)
Amazons: Greek artistic depictions of a female warrior people (fourth century BCE to second century CE)
Amazons: Strabo on their customs and northern location (late first century CE)
Persians: God Mithras as a Roman representation of a Persian (second century CE)
Boiotians: Ephoros on the superiority of Boiotia and on a Phoenician connection (mid-fourth century BCE)
Pelasgian diasporas: Ephoros on legends of migration (mid-fourth century BCE)
Cretans: Ephoros on civic organization and customs (mid-fourth century BCE)
Medes, Assyrians, Baktrians, and others: Herodotos on the mixed composition of the Persian army under Xerxes (fifth century BCE)
Libyans: Herodotos on customs and colonization (fifth century BCE)
Aitolians: Ephoros on their origins and invincibility (mid-fourth century BCE)
Mediterranean peoples: Pseudo-Skymnos’ Voyage Around the Earth for Nikomedes in full (mid-second century BCE)
Germans, Suebians, Marcomannians, and Kimbrians: Poseidonios and Strabo on customs and rumours about the tides (first century BCE)
Mediterranean peoples: Roman coins [part 1] on defeat, capture, and subjugation (first century BCE on)
Dacians and Sarmatians: Reliefs on Trajan’s Column celebrating subjugation (early second century CE)
Celts, Persians, and Amazons: Smaller statues of fighting and dying “barbarians” associated with Attalos of Pergamon (third-second century BCE / second century CE)
Dacians and Sarmatians: Reliefs on Trajan’s Trophy at Adamclisi, Romania (early second century CE)
Sarmatians: Tacitus on ferocity and laziness in military situations (early second century CE)
Celts: Statues of dying Gauls / Galatians associated with Attalos I of Pergamon (late third century BCE / second century CE)
Scythians and other northern peoples: Ephoros (mid-fourth century BCE)
Celts: Ephoros (mid-fourth century BCE)
Indians, Ethiopians, Celts, and Scythians: Ephoros on a four-fold division of the known world (mid-fourth century BCE)
Egyptian, Phoenician, and Phrygian wisdom: Ephoros on inventors (mid-fourth century BCE)
Cretans, Spartans, Carthaginians, and Romans: Polybios on superior and inferior societal organization (second century BCE)
Parthians: Poseidonios on royal banquets (first century BCE)
Arabians and Aramaians: Poseidonios on relations between eastern peoples (first century BCE)
Mysians / Moesians: Poseidonios on their identification and customs based on Homer (first century BCE)
Celts: Phylarchos and Poseidonios on banqueting and violent customs (first century BCE)
Illyrians: Theopompos on banquets (fourth century BCE)
Carthaginians: Appian of Alexandria (mid-second century CE)
Iberians: Appian of Alexandria (mid-second century CE)
Illyrians: Appian of Alexandria (mid-second century CE)
Persians and Medes: Herakleides of Kyme, Klearchos of Soloi, and others on royal banquets (fourth century BCE)
Mediterranean peoples: Claudius Ptolemy on astrological effects on peoples (second century CE)
Mediterranean peoples: Vitruvius on the effects of climate (first century BCE)
Barbarian wisdom: Dio of Prusa on barbarians’ innate knowledge of god (late first century CE)
Germans and Scythians: Seneca on enduring hardships and on anger (first century CE)
Judeans: Pliny the Elder and Julius Solinus on the Essenes beside the Dead Sea (first / third centuries CE)
Judean wisdom: Philo on the Therapeutists’ lifestyle (first century CE)
Judean, Persian, and Indian wisdom: Philo on the freedom of Essenes and Kalanos (early first century CE)
Thracians: Tacitus on their uncivilized and wild nature (early second century CE)
Ethnic diversity on Rhodes island: Inscriptional evidence
Ethnic diversity in Egypt: Inscriptional and papyrological evidence
Scythian and Thracian diasporas: Inscriptional evidence
Celts: Polybios on the Celtic encounter with Rome and on his method in dealing with distant peoples (second century BCE)
Egyptians: Herodotos on customs and legendary kings (fifth century BCE)
Egyptian wisdom: Plato on Solon, the Egyptian priest, and Atlantis (mid-fourth century BCE)
Britons: Julius Caesar (mid-first century BCE)
Judean wisdom: Philo on the superiority of Moses and Judean ancestral customs (first century CE)
Britons: Tacitus (late first century CE)
Libyans / Africans: Sallust and Punic sources on the geography and peoples (mid-first century BCE)
Arkadians: Polybios theorizes environment and peoplehood (second century BCE)
Pontic peoples: Tertullian on the Pontic “barbarian” Marcion (late second century CE)
Syrian perspectives: Lucian of Samosata on The Syrian Goddess in full (mid-second century CE)
Scythian wisdom: Letters of Anacharsis (mid-third century BCE)
Iapygians and Tarentinians: Klearchos of Soloi (fourth century BCE)
Lydians: Xanthos of Lydia and Klearchos of Soloi (fifth-fourth centuries BCE)
Scythians: Klearchos of Soloi (fourth century BCE)
Barbarian wisdom: Poseidonios on inventors of the golden age (first century BCE)
Egyptians: Josephos on animal worship (late first century CE)
Iberians: Artemidoros, Poseidonios, Strabo, and others (second century BCE to first century CE)
Germanic peoples: Tacitus’ Germania in full (late first century CE)
Persian wisdom: Plutarch’s story about Kleombrotos’ journeys (early second century CE)
Egyptian wisdom: Lucian’s story about Eukrates and Pankrates (late second century CE)
Italian and Roman diasporas: Inscriptional evidence
Scholarly articles on ethnic relations and migration
Welcome to Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World (edited by Kotrosits and Harland)
[For Phil’s other websites or courses, please navigate using the main menu at the top.]
Highlighted contributors: > Maia Kotrosits > Daniel Mitchell > Justin Nadeau
The purpose of this website (now with over 400 posts) is to collect, organize, and make public resources for the reconstruction of ethnic relations and ethnographic culture in the ancient Mediterranean and near eastern worlds (fifth century BCE-sixth century CE). Please use the accordion-style arrows and categories in the right sidebar to navigate the site.
“Ethnographic culture,” as we intend it, moves beyond the idea of “ethnography” (literally “representing peoples” or “writing about peoples”) as a Greek and Roman literary genre describing non-Greek and non-Roman peoples (“barbarians”). Instead, ethnographic culture refers to the ways in which the imagination, classification, description, and representation of “other peoples” actively played out in large-scale and small-scale ways across societies and among many different peoples. This is especially the case in connection with conquest and colonization, but also in local social interactions and within diasporic communities of immigrants. Judeans (Jews) and Jesus adherents (Christians) were very much a part of this larger sphere of ethnic encounters, so they have a place here too (see especially category five to your right).
This website, then, combines literary, papyrological, epigraphic, numismatic, and other visual data in order to aid students and researchers in a fuller understanding of ethnographic culture and interactions between peoples. It also facilitates the reconstruction of minoritized ethnic groups spread across time (from the fifth century BCE to the sixth century CE) and geography (across the Mediterranean and near east).
There are times when the organization of material mimics or uses terms from the ancient material. This is not to naturalize those categories or terms, but rather to more clearly demonstrate the categories with which ancient people were working.
Who did it?: This website reflects the ongoing work of Maia Kotrosits and Phil Harland (along with voluntary scholarly contributors) supported by a grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) under the rubric of “Ethnicity, Diaspora, and Ethnographic Culture in the Greco-Roman World.” Many thanks to the Research Assistants from York University who have helped with inputting or checking translations: Amy House (Strabo), Victoria Muccilli (Diodoros), Daniel Mitchell (Herodotos, Lucian), Justin Nadeau (Persian related items and others), and Rosalie Reis (detailed proof-reading). Special thanks also go out to several websites that have already taken the time to clean up and convert to html public domain sources, including Lacus Curtius (led by Bill Thayer), Attalus (led by Andrew Smith), and Topostext (led by Brady Kiesling).
Who are those guys shaking hands at the top?: Aglibol and Malakbel. The monument is from Rome and is a dedication to the Palmyrene gods Aglibol (Moon) and Malakbel (Sun) by Iahari son of Haliphi from Palmyra in Syria (IGUR I 119-120; 236 CE). The inscription is bilingual, in both Greek and Palmyrene. That is not a giant asparagus in the middle. (Currently in the basement of the Capitoline museum in Rome; photo by Harland).
Who is the cowering figure? This is a somewhat disturbing depiction of a soon-to-be subjugated, defeated and killed Persian, likely originally depicted in a monument set up by king Attalos of Pergamon, on which go to this link (now in the Louvre; photo by Harland).
How to cite this website: Maia Kotrosits and Philip A. Harland, eds., Ethnic Relations and Migration in the Ancient World, accessed 2023, https://philipharland.com. For citing individual posts, see the short link citation at the top of each post.