“Unlike in tongue, unlike in dress or arms?”

In Chromatius's sermons, barbarians served as markers of improper religiosity. This idea implied that barbarians could be tamed by Nicene Christian beliefs, while those who rejected them were barbaric and uncivilized. This perspective posed a test for the traditional Roman-barbarian dichotomy; a test which would result in a new challenge for Aquileia's Jewish community. A meaningful reading of Chromatius's approach to barbarians requires some introduction to his rhetorical context. A comparative examination of diverse uses of rhetoric about barbarians by fourth-century contemporaries, both Christian and non-Christian, will set the context for analyzing Chromatius's own adaptations of barbarian rhetoric. A brief examination of varied approaches reveals how barbarians functioned in the rhetoric of Chromatius's contemporaries. A closer analysis of Rufinus, a lens into Chromatius's language, concludes this overview and provides an entry into an analysis of the sermons. Chromatius was re-drawing the traditional Roman-barbarian dichotomy as a Christian-Jew dichotomy. He contrasted the gentes with Jews in numerous other passages.