Were the Sasanians Barbarians? Roman Writers on the “Empire of the Persians”

This chapter reviews how ancient authors' depicted barbarian raids on Roman Greece, and to what extent their accounts are relevant to past and present excavations in Greece, in particular those at the Achaean capital city of Corinth. At first glance, the barbarian raids on Roman Greece seem straightforward: Costobocs, Heruls and Goths from the later second century periodically came south into the Roman province of Achaea and subjected its ancient cities to arson, looting, and civic turmoil before retreating north again, often after a defeat in battle. Ancient geographers placed the Costobocs between the Rhine and the Danube; some moved gradually south into the empire and were Romanized. Archaeological excavations on the other hand provide only ambiguous potential insight into Alaric's actual activities in Greece. Claudian first mentions Alaric and Greece in the In Rufinum, which is bitterly hostile toward Rufinus while flattering Claudian's patron Stilicho.