ABSTRACT
On various occasions civilized man has found himself marching side by side with men at lower (or different) levels of social and cultural development. The great civilizations were accustomed to compare themselves quite favorably with these barbarian neighbors, whom they viewed with varying degrees of condescension, suspicion, scorn, and dread. Medieval European scholars never succeeded in fashioning a general theory of cultural development comparable to the work of Ibn Khaldun or a handful of great Moslem and Chinese historians. The furor barbaricus was evoked in civilized minds, whether the word was applied to Cimmerian, Scythian, Celt, German, Tartar, or Turk. It called forth feelings of dread, distrust, and hatred for a variety of peoples, who were viewed by their civilized critics as being, to a greater or lesser extent, warlike, unpredictable, and cruel. The barbarian par excellence of the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. was the Germanic invader and occasionally the Hunnish and Alanic nomads who accompanied him.
