Homo Barbaricus in the “Imaginary Frontier” between Barbarity and Civilization

Abstract

The article considers the peculiarities of the ethno-social model of human behavior in the historical context of transition from one state to another. Based on the Greek and Roman and early medieval narrative tradition, the frontier is interpreted as a mental phenomenon, as a boundary of the exit from the state of barbarism. It is shown how homo barbaricus, being in a borderline situation, in frontier conditions, marks the limit of barbarism and the beginning of civilization. It is noted that the barbaric existence of man is in the state between paradoxical and contradictory. The article presents the dynamics of transformation of barbaric “frontier status” of Alarich and Stilicho in their struggle for recognition and claim to significance in the civilized Greek and Roman Mediterranean world.