[sillystu04]

The Romans never referred to the Greeks, Jews or Egyptians as barbarian. If they did it certainly wasn't with great frequency.

It almost always targeted at the tribal Anglo, Celtic or Germanic peoples. And in these circumstances it was really an insult at their style of government rather than their ethnic identity.

[rightbyte]

Wasn't the insult to the way their languages sounded, i.e. a onomatopoetic word?