Leandros
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Greeks had 4000 years of Aristocracy, Kingdoms, Emperors, etc. And they had at most, 200 years of "democracy".Yes, it is big true, reputation.
Unfortunately, some Balkanites are very jealous of the ancient Greek civilization.
Greeks were as Californians present day but ancestors of others were Barbarians no matter where they originated from different areas Asia and Europe.
They did not have the benefits of a civilisation and culture like Greeks, including a letter and a written language.
Even some people try to find in their history something great that did not exist and then, in the absence of it, they fabricate.
All what we know about the ancient world comes from the Greeks (and other peoples who had a letter).
In today's interpretations it may seem that the Greeks felt superior, nationalistic, and humiliated Barbarians.
However, it has nothing to do with the truth.
Peter Wade, Race: An Introduction, 2015
(Quote)
“The Greeks did not try to divide humans up into types, according to their material, natural characteristics. Much more important was the form of political governance and civil association. The Greeks differentiated between themselves and ‘barbarians’, but this distinction was based not on geography, appearance or ancestry, but on how people lived. Barbarians were those who lived according to the laws of physics (‘nature’ in the sense of the domain of things that exist independent of human intervention) and thus lived brutishly, inarticulately, without real choice, governed by custom and habit alone, bound together by descent, and subject to tyranny and hierarchy. All people had to contend with physics and custom, but they did not have to be ruled by them alone. Those who lived by the rule of nomos – man-made laws operating through reason, moderation and properly formed speech in a public assembly – were civilised citizens who lived in the political way. People who lived under the rule of monarchs and despots would be inferior.”
All, and I mean All, great Greek philosophers were against "democracy", and pro Aristocracy, Hierarchy and the Natural rule of Inequality.
You re trying to understand the Greek mentality. Read ancient Greek sources, and make your own opinion, instead of reading biased opinions.
Greeks called barbarians ANY non Greek, first for their language( when a barbarian talked they listened to "bar bar bar"), and secondly to ancestry. Herodotus defined Greek Identity as being one of BLOOD, first and foremost, then language, then customs and culture and tradition.
All the above, can be read in ancient greek sources.
Suggesting that Greeks didnt distinguish between them and barbarians, through ancestry, is an outright lie.