Barbaricum (from the gr, Βαρβαρικόν, "foreign", "barbarian") is a geographical name used by historical and archaeological experts to refer to the vast area of

barbarian A barbarian (or savage) is someone who is perceived to be either Civilization, uncivilized or primitive. The designation is usually applied as a generalization based on a popular stereotype; barbarians can be members of any nation judged by som ...

-occupied territory that lay, in

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

times, beyond the frontiers or '' limes'' of the

Roman Empire The Roman Empire ( la, Imperium Romanum ; grc-gre, Βασιλεία τῶν Ῥωμαίων, Basileía tôn Rhōmaíōn) was the post-Republican period of ancient Rome. As a polity, it included large territorial holdings around the Mediterr ...

in North, Central and South Eastern Europe, the "lands lying beyond Roman administrative control but nonetheless a part of the Roman world". During the

Late Antiquity Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...

, it was the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

name for those tribal territories not occupied by Rome that lay beyond the Rhine and the Danube (but not for

Persia Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

Ammianus Marcellinus Ammianus Marcellinus (occasionally Anglicisation, anglicised as Ammian) (born , died 400) was a Roman soldier and historian who wrote the penultimate major historical account surviving from Ancient history, antiquity (preceding Procopius). His w ...

used it, as did Eutropius. The earliest recorded mention appears to date to the early 3rd century. In research literature, the terms 'Germania', which actually means

Magna Germania Germania ( ; ), also called Magna Germania (English: ''Great Germania''), Germania Libera (English: ''Free Germania''), or Germanic Barbaricum to distinguish it from the Roman province of the same name, was a large historical region in north- ...

, and 'Barbaricum' are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are not entirely identical in the chronological or the geographical senses. The extra-Roman area described as Barbaricum was, from the beginning of the

Migration Period The Migration Period was a period in European history marked by large-scale migrations that saw the fall of the Western Roman Empire and subsequent settlement of its former territories by various tribes, and the establishment of the post-Roman ...

, not exclusively inhabited by Germani, even though they represented the majority of the population until the time of

. In the Migration Period, Alans and

Huns The Huns were a nomadic people who lived in Central Asia, the Caucasus, and Eastern Europe between the 4th and 6th century AD. According to European tradition, they were first reported living east of the Volga River, in an area that was part ...

also pushed forward into this area before and, later (from the 6th century),

Slavic tribes This is a list of Slavic peoples and Slavic tribes reported in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, that is, before the year AD 1500. Ancestors *Proto-Indo-Europeans (Proto-Indo-European speakers) ** Proto-Balto-Slavs (common ancestors of Bal ...

populated the area east of the ''Albis'' (

River Elbe The Elbe (; cs, Labe ; nds, Ilv or ''Elv''; Upper and dsb, Łobjo) is one of the major rivers of Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains of the northern Czech Republic before traversing much of Bohemia (western half of the Czech Repu ...

) that the Germani had largely abandoned. It is important to highlight the diverse cultural, social and economic contacts between (Germanic) Barbaricum and the Empire since the early imperial period. Archaeologically, numerous imported Roman artefacts have been uncovered among the finds in the Barbaricum region.See Hans Jürgen Eggers. ''Der römische Import im freien Germanien.'' Atlas Urgesch. 1, Hamburg, 1951; Siegmar von Schnurbein: ''Vom Einfluß Roms auf die Germanen.'' North Rhine-Westphalian Acad. of Science. Lectures G 331. Opladen 1995; Siegmar von Schnurbein, M. Erdrich: ''Das Projekt: Römische Funde im Mitteleuropäischen Barbaricum, dargestellt am Beispiel Niedersachsen.'' Roman-Germanic Commission report no. 73, 1992, pp. 5-27 The formation of major Germanic

tribal The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to conflic ...

units such as the

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni, were a confederation of Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pres ...

and

Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools, ...

, from the time of the imperial

crisis of the 3rd century The Crisis of the Third Century, also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis (AD 235–284), was a period in which the Roman Empire nearly collapsed. The crisis ended due to the military victories of Aurelian and with the ascensi ...

was probably influenced by contact with the Roman world. Likewise, "barbarians" were able to have careers in the

Roman army The Roman army (Latin: ) was the armed forces deployed by the Romans throughout the duration of Ancient Rome, from the Roman Kingdom (c. 500 BC) to the Roman Republic (500–31 BC) and the Roman Empire (31 BC–395 AD), and its medieval contin ...

References

Literature

* Heinrich Beck (ed.): ''Zur Geschichte der Gleichung "germanisch-deutsch"''. Berlin, 2004. * Hans Jürgen Eggers: ''Der römische Import im freien Germanien.'' Atlas Urgesch. 1, Hamburg, 1951. * Guy Halsall: ''Barbarian Migrations and the Roman West, 376–568''. Cambridge, 2007. * Gustav Adolf Lehmann: ''Imperium und Barbaricum. Neue Befunde und Erkenntnisse zu den römisch-germanischen Auseinandersetzungen im nordwestdeutschen Raum – von der augusteischen Okkupationsphase bis zum Germanien-Zug des Maximinus Thrax (235 n. Chr.)''. Vienna, 2011. * Ulla Lund Hansen: ''Römische Kaiserzeit''. In: ''

Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde ''Germanische Altertumskunde Online'', formerly called ''Reallexikon der Germanischen Altertumskunde'', is a German encyclopedia of the study of Germanic history and cultures, as well as the cultures that were in close contact with them. The first ...

''. Vol. 25 (2003), pp. 90ff. *

Walter Pohl Walter Pohl (born 27 December 1953, in Vienna) is an Austrian historian who is Professor of Auxiliary Sciences of History and Medieval History at the University of Vienna. He is a leading member of the Vienna School of History. Biography Walter ...

: ''Die Germanen''. 2nd edn. Munich, 2004. * Tadeusz Sarnowski: ''Barbaricum und ein bellum Bosporanum in einer Inschrift aus Preslav.'' In: ''

Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik The ''Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik'' (commonly abbreviated ZPE; "Journal of Papyrology and Epigraphy") is a peer-reviewed academic journal which contains articles that pertain to papyrology and epigraphy. It has been described as "th ...

'' 87 (1991), pp. 137–144. * Helmuth Schneider (ed.): ''Feindliche Nachbarn. Rom und die Germanen''. Böhlau Verlag, Cologne, 2008, .

External links

{{Wiktionary, Barbaricum Ancient Roman geography Migration Period