Here are some Latin quotes concerning the barbarians. Some of them are probably too long for quotes.



For with barbarians, the more eager a man's daring, the more does he inspire confidence.

Nam barbaris, quanto quis audacia promptus, tanto magis fidus habetur.

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 1:57




For the huge shields and unwieldly lances of the barbarians cannot, amid trunks of trees and brushwood that springs from the ground, be so well managed as our javelins and swords and closefitting armour.

Nec enim inmensa barbarorum scuta, enormis hastas inter truncos arborum et enata humo virgulta perinde haberi quam pila et gladios et haerentia corpori tegmina.

Germanicus, addressing his troops before the battle of the Weser river

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 2:16



Our soldiers, with their shields pressed to their breasts, and their hands grasping their sword-hilts, struck at the huge limbs and exposed faces of the barbarians, cutting a passage through the slaughtered enemy.

Miles, cui scutum pecotri adpressum et insidens capulo manus, latos barbarorum artus, nuda ora foderet viamque strage hostium aperiret.

Battle of the Weser river

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 2:21



With barbarians, indecision is a slave's weakness; prompt action king-like.

Et barbaris cunctatio servilis, statim exequi regium videtur.

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 6:32



Practise clemency and justice, which barbarians would like the more for being unused to them.

Clementiamque ac iustitiam, quanto ignota barbaris, tanto laetiora capesseret.

The emperor Claudius’ advice to Meherdates.

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 12:11



He reminded Meherdates that the impulsive enthusiasm of barbarians soon flags from delay or even changes into treachery.

Monet Meherdaten barbarorum impetus acris cunctatione languescere aut in perfidiam mutari.

C. Cassius Longinus, governor of Syria

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 12:12



There is nothing of which barbarians are so ignorant as military engines and the skilful management of sieges.

Nihil tam ignarum barbaris quam machinamenta et astus oppugnationum.

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Annales 12:45



In their rage and their triumph, they spared no variety of a barbarian's cruelty.

Nec ullum in barbaris ingeniis saevitiae genus omisit ira et victoria.

British tribes under Boudicea.

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Agricola, 1:16



They received his speech with enthusiasm, and as is usual among barbarians, with songs, shouts and discordant cries.

Excepere orationem alacres, ut barbaris moris, fremitu cantuque et clamoribus dissonis.

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Agricola, 1:33



He consented, with the characteristic perfidy of barbarians, to the destruction of Anicetus.

Fluxa, ut est barbaris, fide pactus Aniceti exitium perfugas tradidit.

Prince of the Sedochezi.

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae, 3:48



Civilis, however, was naturally politic to a degree rarely found among barbarians.

Sed Civilis ultra quam barbaris solitum ingenio sollers

Concerning C. Julius Civilis, leader of the Batavi

C. Cornelius Tacitus, Historiae, 4:13



For the Numidians are, beyond all the other barbarians, violently addicted to love.

Et sunt ante omnes barbaros Numidae effusi in uenerem.

Livy, Ad urbe condita, 29:23



How inconstant and changeable were the minds of the barbarians.

Quam uana et mutabilia barbarorum ingenia essent.

Livy, Ad urbe condita, 29:23



With foreigners, with barbarians, all Greeks have, and ever will have, eternal war.

Cum alienigenis, cum barbaris aeternum omnibus Graecis bellum est eritque.

Ambassadors of Macedon, addressing the Aetolian League.

Livy, Ad urbe condita, 31:29



They live under customs and rites more brutally savage than any barbarians, nay, than wild beasts themselves.

Moribus ritibusque efferatioribus quam ulli barbari, immo quam immanes beluae uiuunt

Aristaenos of Megalopolis, denouncing the Aetolian League and Nabis of Sparta

Livy, Ad urbe condita, 34:24




The barbarians, as is their usual habit, spent the greater part of the night in rejoicing, in exultation and in noisy demonstrations.

Plerumque noctis barbari more suo laetari, exultare, strepere vocibus.

Sallust, Bellum Iugurthum, 98:6



Murder should not, after the manner of barbarians, be atoned for by murder, and blood by blood.

Barbaro ritu caede caedem et sanguinem sanguine expianda.

Sallust, Ad Caesarem Senem de Re Publica Oratio, 3:4



Antisthenes was taunted with having a barbarian, a Thracian woman, for his mother; his retort was that even the mother of the gods was from Mount Ida.

Antistheni mater barbara et Thraessa obiciebatur: respondit et deorum matrem Idaeam esse.

Seneca, de Constantia, 18:6



What else is it, in fact, but their anger - its own worst foe - that reduces to impotency the barbarians, who are so much stronger of body than we, and so much better able to endure hardship?

Quid enim est aliud quod barbaros tanto robustiores corporibus, tanto patientiores laborum comminuat nisi ira infestissima sibi?

Seneca, de Ira, 1:11:1




But there lives no race that does not feel the goad of anger, which masters alike both Greeks and barbarians, and is no less ruinous to those who respect the law than to those who make might the only measure of their right.

Nulla gens est quam non ira instiget, tam inter Graios quam inter barbaros potens, non minus perniciosa leges metuentibus quam quibus iura distinguit modus uirium.

Seneca, de Ira, 3:2:1



Such was the ferocity of barbarian kings when in anger - men who had had no contact with learning or the culture of letters.

Haec barbaris regibus feritas in ira fuit, quos nulla eruditio, nullus litterarum cultus inbuerat

Seneca, de Ira, 3:17:1



You are like the barbarians who, usually, when they are blockaded, having no knowledge of the engines of war, watch with indifference the effort of the besiegers.

Sicut barbari plerumque inclusi et ignari machinarum segnes laborem obsidentium spectant.

Seneca, De Vita Beata, 26:3




Latin words do not suggest themselves readily to one in whose ears the uncouth jargon of barbarians is ever ringing, distressing even to the more civilized barbarians.

Non facile Latina ei homini verba succurrant, quem barbarorum inconditus et barbaris quoque humanioribus gravis fremitus circumsonat.

Seneca, Ad Polybium de Consolatione, 18




Why do we find Greek cities in the very heart of barbarian countries?

Quid sibi uolunt in mediis barbarorum regionibus Graecae urbes?

Seneca, Ad Helviam Matrem de Consolatione, 7:1




A coin is not necessarily a bad one because a barbarian who does not know the government stamp has rejected it.

Non est malus denarius, quem barbarus et ignarus formae publicae reiecit.

Seneca, De Beneficiis, 5:20:1



"Why, oh why, have I not long ago escaped from all this torture and all this mockery? Why should I be armed and yet wait for death to come?"

'Quare, quare, non omne tormentum, omne ludibrium iamdudum effugio? quare ego mortem armatus exspecto?'

A barbarian warrior, killing himself (by a spear-stab to the throat) rather than fighting at the Roman games.

Seneca, Epistulae, 8:70:26



Nor were the barbarians as barbarous in language and in race as you are in your nature and your habits.

Neque tam barbari lingua et natione illi quam tu natura et moribus.

Cicero, In Verrem, 4:112




You have subdued nations, savage in their barbarism, countless in their numbers.

Domuisti gentis immanitate barbaras, multitudine innumerabilis.

Cicero, Pro Marcello, 8(3), concerning Caesar



But was not Romulus, think you, a king of a barbarous people?

Cedo, num, barbarorum Romulus rex fuit?

Cicero, de re publica, 1:58



The Greeks, who say that all peoples are either Grecianized or barbarous.

Si ut Graeci dicunt omnis aut Graios esse aut barbaros

Cicero, de re publica, 1:58



I believe the Greeks were just as barbarous as the Romans.

Non Graecos minus barbaros quam Romanos puto.

Cicero, de re publica, 1:58