Cassiodorus popularized a folk etymology linking this term to a combination of words meaning “beard” and “flat land.” For 10 points each:
[10e] Give this term used in the Greco-Roman world for generally uncivilized foreigners. The peoples that invaded the late Roman Empire, like the Huns and Goths, are often grouped together under this general term.
ANSWER: barbarians [or barbarus; or barbari; or barbaroi]
[10h] The Barbaricum was a Roman name for the lands that lay beyond this system of Roman boundary markings. The Rhine River made up much of the Germanic part of this system.
ANSWER: limes (“lie-mes”) [accept Limes Germanicus or Germanic Limes]
[10m] Cicero referred to this region’s mountainous interior as a “land of barbarians” following a series of wars against its Nuragic peoples. This was the larger of two regions annexed by Rome after the Mercenary War.
ANSWER: Sardinia
<Benjamin McAvoy-Bickford, Other History>