tudes toward foreigners and reactions to them through analy-
sis of the patterns of display of signs of identity, such as dress
pins, belt ornaments, neck rings, decoration on weapons, and
other material signs.
Although we have no written sources from temperate
Europe to inform us about attitudes toward the Greek world
of the Mediterranean (because the Iron Age peoples of Eu-
rope did not have a system of writing), we can learn some-
thing about their attitudes from their trade for Greek objects.
During the sixth and fi ft h centuries b.c.e. many of the larger
communities north of the Alps, such as those at Mont Lassois
in eastern France and at the Heuneburg in southwestern Ger-
many, acquired Greek luxury objects, including fi ne painted
pottery, bronze wine-serving vessels, and ornaments of coral
and ivory. Such items are found in the wealthiest burials at
the largest communities of the period (550–450 b.c.e.). Th e
grave of one rich woman at Vix near Mont Lassois, with two
ornate ceramic wine cups and an enormous bronze krater for
mixing wine with water, all made in Greek workshops, is a
good example. Th e presence of such objects in the graves of
the elite of Early Iron Age society indicates that Greek luxury
goods and the society that produced them were held in high
regard by the local rulers in temperate Europe. Th ere is even
evidence to suggest that elites in Iron Age Europe adopted
the wine-drinking ritual practiced in Greece as a means of
expressing their status and power within their societies.
As with the attitudes toward the Greek world in the Early
Iron Age, in the Late Iron Age luxury objects made in the Ro-
man world were highly valued by the elites of society. Roman
ceramic amphorae, used to bring in Mediterranean wine, as
well as bronze vessels for serving it, together with fi ne pottery,
coins, and other objects, were highly prized by wealthy and
powerful individuals in Late Iron Age society. Th ese items
are found in the richest graves, frequently in association with
other objects of special value and prestige. Examples of such
burials are those at Welwyn Garden City in the United King-
dom and at Goeblingen-Nospelt in Luxembourg. During and
aft er the Roman conquests many people who lived in lands
north of the newly won imperial territories showed their ad-
miration for things Roman. In graves in northern Germany,
Denmark, and elsewhere beyond the frontier, Roman bronze
vessels and other signs of connection with Rome were proudly
displayed in the funeral ceremonies and then placed next to
the deceased individuals in their graves.
GREECE
BY JOHN THORBURN
According to the Greek ideal, people from other towns or
countries were to be treated in a kindly manner. In the earli-
est Greek literature, especially Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey—
probably fi rst written down in the eighth century b.c.e.—the
proper treatment of strangers and outsiders is of great sig-
nifi cance. Th e most common Homeric word for an outsider
is xenos, which usually means “foreigner,” “stranger,” “guest,”
or “guest-friend.” Another Greek word, xenia, primarily de-
notes either the hospitality shown to an outsider or good rela-
tions between two towns or cities.
Th e Homeric epics, core texts of Greek education, pro-
vided many examples of how strangers or outsiders should
be treated. In the sixth book of the Iliad the Greek Diomedes
encounters the Trojan Glaucus on the battlefi eld, where they
discover that their fathers had a host-guest relationship.
For this reason Diomedes and Glaucus decide not to fi ght
and even exchange gift s of hospitality with each other. In
Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus, returning to his country aft er
20 years abroad, is disguised as a beggar from another land.
Before Odysseus goes to his home, he encounters one of his
swineherds, who despite his own lowly social and fi nancial
status off ers this unknown beggar shelter, food, drink, and
even clothing. In contrast to the swineherd’s hospitality is
the behavior of the lawless Cyclops. Although Odysseus
warns the Cyclops that Zeus himself, king of the gods, pro-
tects strangers, the monster declares that he and his race are
more powerful than Zeus. Th e Cyclops further violates the
customs of hospitality by imprisoning Odysseus and several
of his men and even eating six of Odysseus’s companions.
Odysseus eventually escapes the Cyclops’s cave aft er blind-
ing the monster, thus punishing him for violating the cus-
toms of hospitality.
As the Homeric epics show, those upholding the cus-
toms of hospitality could expect fair treatment, whereas
those behaving in an uncivilized or barbaric manner would
be punished. Th e English word barbarian comes from a
Greek word, barbaros, which may have originated from the
way the language of non-Greeks sounded to Greek speakers
(“ba-ba-ba”). So, in a strict sense, the Greeks regarded non-
Greek speakers as barbarians. Because the expansion of the
Persian Empire in the sixth and fi ft h centuries b.c.e. brought
increased contact with and warfare against the Greeks, they
regarded the Persians in particular as barbaroi. Nevertheless,
some Greeks, even aft er fi ghting the Persians early in the fi ft h
century b.c.e., later associated with the Persians and other
so-called barbarians either for their own benefi t or the benefi t
of their cities.
Although non-Greek speakers were labeled barbarians,
some Greeks regarded their fellow Greeks as outsiders. Dur-
ing the eighth and seventh centuries b.c.e. the Spartans con-
quered and enslaved many of their neighbors. Some of the
defeated towns, called perioikoi (“those living round about”)
could keep their own governments but had to serve in the
Spartan military and could not vote in the Spartan citizen as-
sembly. Sparta’s slaves, called helots, had to give their masters
half of what their land produced. Because the helots outnum-
bered the Spartans and thus might try to overthrow them, the
Spartans terrorized them with an annual practice, called the
krypteia, in which selected Spartans assassinated suspicious
helots. Sometimes, however, helots could be freed from their
slavery, especially for outstanding military service when the
ranks of the Spartan citizens needed supplementing.488 foreigners and barbarians: Greece