Revisiting Wise "Barbarians" in the Hellenistic Era

The overriding sense of civilizational superiority among Greeks was encapsulated most potently in the concept of the “barbarian,” an uneducated foreigner who could do nothing more than babble nonsense, let alone contribute to civilization. The strong distinction between Greeks and barbarians was not always perfectly dichotomous, however, as seen in the wise barbarian theme that scholarship has long tracked, particularly in connection with ethnographic works and, in the Roman era, philosophical and religious debates. Taking a decolonizing approach that also moves beyond the problematic modern categories of “philosophy” and “religion,” this article explores the wise barbarian as part of a more widespread set of ethnic discourses in the period after Herodotus (ca. 420 bce) and before Poseidonios of Apameia (ca. 50 bce). I argue that these discourses were employed not only among Greeks such as Ephoros of Kyme (ca. 350 bce), but also among subject peoples themselves, as in Bel-re’ushu (Berossos) of Babylon (ca. 300 bce), long before the Stoic Poseidonios developed his theory of primitive wisdom in the first century bce. These multivalent discourses provide important insights into ethnic relations in and around the Hellenistic era as those belonging to both hegemonic and conquered populations engaged in different strategies in order to navigate their places within an expanding world.