Guaporense

The Greeks called the Persians barbarians. However, the Persians didn't call the Greeks barbarians.

The word was invented by the Greeks and later used by the Romans. The Graeco-Roman city state culture called barbarians all the other cultures in the world that were not Graeco-Roman and indeed they considered all non-Graeco-Roman cultures to have been "barbaric" (i.e. more primitive), less advanced and inferior. That includes the whole Persian Empire except the Ionian cities briefly under Persian control.

Thucydides for instance, claimed that conditions in Greece several centuries previously, when Hellenic civilization was beginning to emerge, were similar to the conditions in the rest of the world (i.e. the barbarian world).

Barbarians to history fanboys today means that Celtic and Germanic tribes of Northern Europe.

TheBlessedTraitor

I dont find it hard to believe at all that the Germans fought using some form of standard formation, in fact, i had though this was consensus.

I dont agree with it being described a a "phalanx," however. I take "phalanx" in this context to refer more to an organizational unit rather than a direct comparison to the Greek formation that comes to mind upon hearing the word phalanx. I doubt the two formations were even remotely similar.

pixi666

I agree, the term 'phalanx' implies a very specific mode of warfare: citizen militia with basically uniform equipment fighting in tight blocks with interlocking shields and long spears. The Germans most definitely did not use this.

I imagine a phalanx would be rather impractical for the dense forests of Germania anyway

Diviacus

As far as Caesar used the word "phalanx", it's difficult to imagine that it's was very different from what he knew perfectly. About the Gauls, scholars consider their formations were similar to a phalanx, but not so tight as the Greek or the Roman ones.