Barbarians has new meaning to me!

This passage caught my eye.

Romans 1:13-15(NKJV)

Now I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that I often planned to come to you (but was hindered until now), that I might have some fruit among you also, just as among the other Gentiles. 

I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. 

So, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are in Rome also.

The reason that it caught my eye is that I have a new understanding of the meaning of barbarians.  In the past I thought it was simply a word for the "uncivilized" of the world.  Kind of a generic word.

Well, I've been watching Rise of the Barbarians (History Channel I think).  I didn't realize that it was actually the specific word used to refer to all those who lived outside of the Roman Empire.  I also didn't know that Barbarian uprisings spanned the time of Jesus.

For example many have heard of Hannibal and the Alps.  I vaguely knew the story.  Hannibal was a great leader from the North of Africa.  He marched an army all the way around the Mediterranean Sea, then went slightly north behind the Alps, and then crossed the Alps in the middle of winter so he could attack Rome from the north!

He lost something like 30,000 men just crossing the Alps.  He had 38 elephants and only 4 survived. 

All fascinating stuff but what I didn't know was that this happened about 218 years before Jesus! 

Good show if you are interested in History.