Greeks also specifically named modern day Red Sea African countries (Sudan-Eritrea-Somalia) as Barbaria, their people as Barbars/Berbers.
Here’s the thing, though: Sudan-Eritrea-Somalia are neither North African countries (they’re more Central-East African) nor too close to Greece, so how did they even name that place Barbaria? They had to be aware that such a place exist. Did they send a few Greek people to explore Africa to look at their way of life and they ended up calling it Barbaria simply because they didn’t like the way they lived?
They called it Barbaria because they didnt understand, might have thought the language to be too unique for the region, it happened too long ago to be sure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbaria_(region)
In general, a lot of people dont understand that even Chinese Han Empire and Roman Empire actually had contacts, they just never explored them any further “because my culture is clearly superior anyways”. They were aware the world was bigger than they controlled, but Persia was always inbetween
Here’s the thing, though: Sudan-Eritrea-Somalia are neither North African countries (they’re more Central-East African) nor too close to Greece, so how did they even name that place Barbaria? They had to be aware that such a place exist. Did they send a few Greek people to explore Africa to look at their way of life and they ended up calling it Barbaria simply because they didn’t like the way they lived?
They (grecoromans) did travel the Red Sea, because Egypt traded through there with Asia, so they were interested: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periplus_of_the_Erythraean_Sea
They called it Barbaria because they didnt understand, might have thought the language to be too unique for the region, it happened too long ago to be sure: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbaria_(region)
In general, a lot of people dont understand that even Chinese Han Empire and Roman Empire actually had contacts, they just never explored them any further “because my culture is clearly superior anyways”. They were aware the world was bigger than they controlled, but Persia was always inbetween