A word which, at the beginning, was an onomatopoeia (Greek barbaroï) and designated those people who, not knowing how to speak the Greek language, had a way of living which was considered primitive. Subsequently, this term was also applied to peoples who did not live within the Roman Empire. Synonymous with ‘foreigners,’ it was not long before it took on the meaning of ‘uncivilised,’ thus becoming charged with a clearly pejorative value. The expression ‘Barbarian kingdoms’ designates the political entities in the hands of peoples with Germanic origins which sprung up, between the 4th and 7th centuries, on the ruins of the Western Roman empire. The main Barbarian peoples in the West were the Visigoths (Iberian peninsula), the Franks (Merovingian and then Carolingian dynasty – Gaul), the Ostrogoths (Italian peninsula – 6^th-7^th centuries), the Lombards (the Po River plain – 6^th-8^th centuries) and the Burgundione people (the future Burgundian area).