Bithynians, Mariandynians, Paphlagonians, and others: Strabo on temple-states and peoples near his Pontic homeland (early first century CE)
Cappadocians: Strabo on their temple-states and supposed desire for subservience (early first century CE)
Indians, Ethiopians, and Celts: Dio of Prusa critiques foreign imports and luxury (late first century CE)
Indians: Dio of Prusa on the Indians’ superior mode of life (late first century CE)
Persian, Egyptian, Indian, and Celtic wisdom: Dio of Prusa on philosophers’ roles in leadership (late first century CE)
Getians, Scythians, and Goths: Jordanes on their supposed origins and achievements (mid-sixth century CE)
Persians: Dio of Prusa on Magians and a supposedly Zoroastrian myth (late first century CE)
Scythians and Getians: Dio of Prusa on inter-ethnic encounters at Olbia and on Getian Matters (late first century CE)
Ethnic diversity in Alexandria: Dio of Prusa on the cross-roads of the world (late first century CE)
Parthians and Scythians: Julius Africanus on barbarian military techniques (early third century CE)
Parthians: Arrian on their Scythian origins (second century CE)
Iberians: Appian of Alexandria on Viriathus and resistance by Lusitanians (second century CE)
Scythians: Adventures of Andrew and Matthias among the Man-eaters as ethnographic fiction (third-fifth centuries CE)
Libyans / Africans: Tacitus on Tacfarinas and resistance by Numidians, Maurians, and Musulamians (early second century CE)
Libyans / Africans: Pliny the Elder on various peoples and strange customs (first century CE)
Finnish Institute at Athens presentation – ‘You are the bandit!’: Criminalizing Conquered Peoples, and Some Retorts
Cretans: Athenians and Rhodians on suppressing supposed bandit peoples (fifth-third centuries BCE)
Northern peoples: Inscriptions on barbarians as bandits (second-third centuries CE)
Aitolians: Thucydides on barbarous Greeks (late fifth century BCE)
Barbarians and Greeks: Thucydides theorizes the shift from barbarian banditry to settled civilization (late fifth century BCE)
Scythian wisdom: Curtius Rufus on the Scythian elder’s speech about Alexander the bandit (first century CE)
Egyptian diasporas: Herodotos on legends about Kolchians and customs of circumcision (mid-fifth century BCE)
Pelasgian diasporas: Hekataios of Miletos and Herodotos on legends of migration, language, and influence (mid-fifth century BCE)
Indians: Ktesias on Indian Matters via Photios, Pliny the Elder, and Aelian (early fourth century BCE)
Indians, Ethiopians and others: Pliny the Elder on “unbelievable” peoples (first century CE)
Assyrians, Medes and Persians: Ktesias on Persian Matters via Diodoros and Photios (early fourth century BCE)
Scythians and Ethiopians: Agatharchides and Diodoros theorize about the effects of climate (second-first centuries CE)
Ethiopians: Agatharchides and Diodoros on lifestyles and diets in the extreme south (second-first centuries BCE)
Thracians, Getians, Paionians, and others: Herodotos (mid-fifth century BCE)
Judean diasporas: Differing perspectives on violent clashes between Judeans and Greeks in Libya and Egypt under Trajan, ca. 115-117 CE (second-fourth centuries CE)
Judean diasporas: Josephos on conflicts in Babylonia, ca. 40-66 CE (late first century CE)
Ichthyophagians: Nearchos and Agatharchides on Fish-eaters around the Arabian Sea (fourth-first centuries BCE)
Baktrians, Sogdians, and some “completely barbarous” eastern peoples: Strabo (early first century CE)
Parthians: Strabo on Scythian origins and military success (early first century CE)
Parthians: Trogus on the origins and developments of an empire (first century BCE)
Daans, Kadousians, Hyrkanians, and Sakians: Strabo on peoples east of the Caspian Sea (first century CE)
Itureans among Arabians: Strabo and Josephos on a supposed bandit-people (first century CE)
Germans and Sarmatians: Josephos on impulsive and violent northerners (late first century CE)
Idumeans: Josephos on the Edomites’ origins and relations with Judeans (late first century CE)
Idumean diasporas: Inscriptions and papyri (second century BCE-third century CE)
Judean diasporas: Josephos on tensions with Greeks in Syria, the Decapolis, and Alexandria ca. 59-66 CE (late first century CE)
Indian wisdom: Josephos integrates Indians into Eleazar’s Masada speech (late first century CE)
Kimmerians and Kolchians: Herodotos on other Pontic peoples (mid-fifth century BCE)
Samaritans: Josephos on Cuthean origins and relations with Judeans over centuries (late first century CE)
Indian wisdom: Naked philosophers and wise diviners in the Alexander Romance (fourth century CE and earlier)
Egyptian wisdom: Alexander Romance on king Nektanebos the astrologer and diviner (fourth century CE and earlier)
Babylonian and Persian wisdom: Kleitarchos on Chaldeans and Magians (late fourth-third centuries BCE)
Barbarians and Greeks: Eratosthenes challenges the dichotomy (third century BCE)
Egyptians: Achilles Tatius and Dio Cassius on man-eating cowherds / bandits (second-third century CE)
Barbarians and Greeks: Dionysios theorizes the blurry lines (late first century BCE)
Iberians, Albanians and others of the Caucasus area: Strabo (early first century CE)
Babylonians and Assyrians: Herodotos on legendary queens and outstanding customs (mid-fifth century BCE)
Judean diasporas: Philo on conflicts with Greeks at Alexandria and on rebellious Egyptians (mid-first century CE)
Arabians: Pseudo-Nilus on barbarian bandits and Saracens in the Sinai desert (early fifth century CE)
Celts: Cicero on Gauls and the link between imperial conquest and negative stereotypes (mid-first century BCE)
Maiotians, Bosporians, Kaukasians, and other Pontic peoples: Strabo on northern Asia (early first century CE)
Sicilians and other Greeks: Cicero’s praise for Sicilians in the prosecution of Verres (mid-first century BCE)
Phoenicians and Sardinians: Cicero’s ethnic invective in defending Marcus Scaurus (mid-first century BCE)
Celts: Cicero’s ethnic invective against Gauls in defending Fonteius (mid-first century BCE)
Scythians: Aischines’ ethnic invective against Demosthenes (mid-fourth century BCE)
Judean diasporas: Josephos’ citation of documents on Asia Minor and Libya under Julius Caesar and Augustus (late first century CE)
Egyptian and Ethiopian diasporas: Diodoros on competing legends of migration and colonization (mid-first century BCE)
Judeans, “Asiatics”, and Greeks: Cicero’s ethnic invective aimed at eastern witnesses against Flaccus (mid-first century BCE)
Judeans: Trogus on contributions of Joseph and Moses and on the exodus (first century BCE)
Indians: Herodotos on eastern peoples at the ends of the earth (mid-fifth century BCE)
Greeks, Barbarians, Judeans, and Christians: Eusebios’ framing of a way of life (early fourth century CE)
Egyptians: Dio Cassius’ speech by Octavian on the “effeminate” Antony (early third century CE)
Celts: Dio Cassius on spirited and untrustworthy Galatians (early third century CE)
Judeans: Dio Cassius and Roman elite attitudes (early third century CE)
Judeans and others: The Gospel of Philip (before the fourth century CE)
Persian, Indian, and Judean wisdom: Klearchos of Soloi on Magian precedence (fourth century BCE)
Judeans: Kleomedes denigrates Epicurus and Judeans (second century CE)
Judeans: Ignatius on Judaizing and Christianizing (early second century CE)
Judeans and Celts: Various authors on Claudius’ actions against foreigners in the 40s CE (second / third centuries CE
Ethiopians: Herodotos on southern peoples at the ends of the earth (mid-fifth century BCE)
Mediterranean peoples: Artemidoros theorizes foreign elements in dreams (second century CE)
Barbarian wisdom: The Thunder, Perfect Mind (before the fourth century CE)
Syrian perspectives: Lucian self-identifies as “barbarian” and “Assyrian” (mid-second century CE)
Libyan perspectives: Cornelius Fronto self-identifies as a “barbarian” and Libyan nomad (mid-second century CE)
Libyan perspectives: Apuleius self-identifies as a barbarian and Numidian / Gaetulian (mid-second century CE)
Persians, Spartans, and Athenians: Platonic author on the superiority of the Persians (fourth century BCE)
Indian wisdom: Apuleius on the amazing naked philosophers and Pythagoras’ journeys (mid-second century CE)
Judeans, Syrians, Celts, Scythians and others: Plutarch on the “barbarian” origins of fearing the gods, or “superstition” (early second century CE)
Judeans, Syrians, and Egyptians: Epiktetos engages with ethnographic discourses for philosophical aims (mid-first century CE)
Judeans, Egyptians, and Magians: Various authors on Tiberius’ actions against foreign practices 17-19 CE (first-third centuries CE)
Judeans, Egyptians, and others: Seneca on the “superstitions” of foreigners (mid-first century CE)
Judeans, Africans, and Germans: Columella on the limits of environmental theory (first century CE)
Judeans: Valerius Maximus on the 139 BCE expulsion with “Chaldeans” (early first century CE)
Idumeans and Judeans: Ptolemy the historian on the difference (late first century BCE)
Judeans and Thracians: Hermippos of Smyrna on their influence on Pythagoras (early second century BCE)
Judean wisdom: Josephos on philosophical sects among Judeans (late-first century CE)
Greeks and Judeans: “Hellenizing” and “Judaizing” in 2 Maccabees (first century BCE)
Persians and Medes: Thucydides on Medizing (late-fifth century BCE)
Samaritans and Judeans: Belonging to Israel in the Gospels (first century CE)
Lydians: Herodotos on king Croesus and Lydian customs (mid-fifth century BCE)
Gauls and Germans: Scenes from the Triumphal Arch of Orange (late first century BCE)
Greeks and other peoples: Paul’s Judean stereotypes about non-Judeans (mid-first century CE)
Christians, Judeans, and Greeks: Christians as a descent group in the Epistle to Diognetos (second or third century CE)
Egyptians and Canaanites: Wisdom of Solomon on worship of animals and images (first century BCE)
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)
Babylonian wisdom: 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)
Carthaginians: Appian of Alexandria (mid-second century CE)
Iberians: Appian of Alexandria (mid-second century CE)
Illyrians: Appian of Alexandria (mid-second century CE)
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)
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 on wise barbarians (mid-third century BCE)
Iapygians and Tarentines: Klearchos of Soloi (fourth century 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)
Germans: 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 525 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.