BARBARIAN 



588 



BARBARY STATES 



Barbara Frictchic is one of the best of 



-horter narrative poems, and its martial 

 interesting story and pleasing rhythm 

 make it a great favorite with children. 



BARBAR'IAN, a name given by the Greeks 

 to everyone who spoke any language but 

 Greek. Thus when Saint Paul, in his Epistle 

 to the Romans, said "I am debtor both to the 

 Greeks and to the barbarians," he meant not 

 uncivilized people, but simply non-Greeks. 

 Originally the word had no unpleasant mean- 

 ing, but naturally, because the Greeks thought 

 themselves superior intellectually to any other 

 people, it soon took on something of the mod- 

 ern meaning rude, uncivilized and illiterate. 



cities, the most famous of these being Carthage, 

 renowned for its wealth and splendor. It was 

 envied by the Romans, who sacked and de- 

 stroyed it in 146 B. c. In the time of Emperor 

 Constantine the Romans held sway over nine 

 provinces in North Africa, and the ruins of 

 the great towns they built are to-day an inter- 

 esting feature of the country. The Moors, 

 driven out of Spain by the Christians in the 

 fifteenth century, settled in North Africa and 

 began a career of piracy that made them the 

 terror of Mediterranean seamen for years, and 

 the European nations secured protection for 

 their commerce only by the payment of tribute. 

 The Unite'd States, in the early years of its 



The Greeks applied the tdrm to the Romans, 

 who in turn made use of it to describe all who 

 spoke neither Latin nor Greek. The origin of 

 the word is uncertain, but lit probably was an 

 imitation of some of the tenseless sounds of 

 which, to the Greek ear, alll other languages 

 seemed to be made up. 



BARBAROSSA, bar bah res' a, a surname 

 given to Frederick I of Germany (which see). 

 It means Redbeard. 



BARBARY, bahr'bari, STATES, those 

 countries in North Africa that lie along the 

 southern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, the 

 modern names of which are Morocco, Algeria, 

 Tunis and Libya (until 1912, Tripoli and Bar- 

 ca). They are inhabited by settled, and also 

 by wandering, Arabs, Moors, Jews, Turks, ne- 

 groes, a few Europeans and by the Berbers, 

 the original inhabitants, from whom the region 

 takes its name. 



Historically, the Barbary states are of great 

 interest. Along the coast in ancient times the 

 Phoenicians established thriving colonies and 



history as a nation, took the initiative in put- 

 ting a stop to these outrages. In a war with 

 Tripoli (1801-1804), in which the Americans 

 distinguished themselves in many daring ex- 

 ploits, the ruler of Tripoli was forced to respect 

 the sea rights of others. There was further 

 trouble during the War of 1812, but in 1815 

 Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis were glad to sign 

 peace treaties with the United States when a 

 fleet commanded by Stephen Decatur sailed 

 into the harbors of their chief ports. Since 

 then the Barbary pirates have given no trouble. 

 Turkey, once the dominant power in North 

 Africa, has no authority in the Barbary states 

 at the present time. Algiers is a French colony, 

 Morocco and Tunis are French protectorates, 

 and Tripoli, including Barca, was wrested from 

 Turkey by Italy in 1912, and the name changed 

 to Libya. See MOROCCO; ALGIERS; TUNIS; 

 TRIPOLI. 



Consult Pool and Kelly'? The Story of the 

 Barbary Corsairs; Allen's Our Navy and the 

 Barbary Corsairs. 



