Whereas the previous chapter discussed the barbarian antithesis in the pre-imperial and imperial literature of the Greco-Roman and Chinese traditions, this chapter will turn to the later periods of Late Antiquity and Early Medieval China. It will first consider the expression of this concept in the Wars of Procopius and the Jin shu 晉書 of the Tang 唐 Bureau of Historiography, before examining the perpetuation of the three ethnographic frameworks discussed in Chapter 1. After considering the aspects of classical ethnography treated in Chapters 1 and 2, i.e., the notion of the barbarian antithesis and the epistemological frameworks used by both Greco-Roman and Chinese authors to rationalize and represent foreign peoples, the chapter will then turn to the two texts’ representations of the main non-Roman and non-Chinese peoples who will be the primary focus of the remaining chapters. Central to the concerns of this study, these were the peoples who had moved into the empires and claimed to be legitimate rulers over formerly imperial territories, counting both their own original followers as well as the Roman and Chinese populations of their domains among their subjects. Procopius and the authors of the Jin shu were not treating the unknown quantities situated beyond the frontiers, peoples who had been in a relationship of either subjugation to the empire or one of independent hostility or alliance. Accordingly, the historians were presented with a new and unprecedented phenomenon: How does one represent a barbarian people that has not only entered the empire but also assumed the reins of state along with royal or imperial prerogatives? This chapter provides a critical link between the classical past of each tradition and the new realities of the early to mid-first millennium AD. By establishing continuity with the respective classical traditions, the chapter allows us to consider the later legacy of ancient worldviews while also offering a window onto the way those worldviews were adapted to represent new realities.