Notions, as well as realities, of foreignness, alienness, and not-belonging in the Roman world have received ample treatment, from a broad range of perspectives, in recent scholarship. An important aspect that has not been covered thus far is the question of how these experiences inscribed themselves in the history of the mentality, especially (but not only) of those affected, and how these deeply subjective and personal experiences extended into poetic environments beyond the literary canon. The present paper addresses this matter through a full-scale discussion of the terminology directly related to the terms barbarus and barbaricus as they are found in the Latin verse inscriptions. The body of evidence is of especial importance in this regard, as it reflects a cultural practice that spans the geographical, chronological, and social dimensions of the Roman empire. Starting with the earliest evidence of the term in the verse inscriptions of Pompeii, the paper then examines the remaining evidence which can be grouped in three main clusters: (i) mentions of barbarians as worthy opponents, (ii) references to barbarians as those who lack civilisation and refinement, and (iii) instances in which the term barbarus has been used in self-representation and self-description.