βάρβαρος deriv. uncertain barbarous, i. e. not Greek, foreign, known to Hom., as appears from the word βαρβαρόφωνος in Il.:—as Subst. βάρβαροι, οἱ, originally all that were not Greeks, specially the Medes and Persians, Hdt., Attic: so the Hebrews called the rest of mankind Gentiles. From the Augustan age however the name was given by the Romans to all tribes which had no Greek or Roman accomplishments. after the Persian war the word took the sense of outlandish, ἀμαθὴς καὶ βάρβαρος Ar.; βαρβαρώτατος Ar., Thuc.