<P> Waiting for the Barbarians is a novel by the South African - born Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee . First published in 1980, it was chosen by Penguin for its series Great Books of the 20th Century and won both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for fiction . American composer Philip Glass has also written an opera of the same name based on the book which premiered in September 2005 at Theater Erfurt, Germany . </P> <P> Coetzee took the title from the poem "Waiting for the Barbarians" by the Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy . </P> <P> The story is narrated in the first person by the unnamed magistrate of a small colonial town that exists as the territorial frontier of "the Empire". The Magistrate's rather peaceful existence comes to an end with the Empire's declaration of a state of emergency and with the deployment of the Third Bureau--special forces of the Empire--due to rumours that the area's indigenous people, called "barbarians" by the colonists, might be preparing to attack the town . Consequently, the Third Bureau conducts an expedition into the land beyond the frontier . Led by a sinister Colonel Joll, the Third Bureau captures a number of barbarians, brings them back to town, tortures them, kills some of them, and leaves for the capital in order to prepare a larger campaign . </P> <P> In the meantime, the Magistrate begins to question the legitimacy of imperialism and personally nurses a barbarian girl who was left crippled and partly blinded by the Third Bureau's torturers . The Magistrate has an intimate yet uncertain relationship with the girl . Eventually, he decides to take her back to her people . After a life - threatening trip through the barren land, during which they have sex, he succeeds in returning her--finally asking, to no avail, if she will stay with him--and returns to his own town . The Third Bureau soldiers have reappeared there and now arrest the Magistrate for having deserted his post and consorting with "the enemy". Without much possibility of a trial during such emergency circumstances, the Magistrate remains in a locked cellar for an indefinite period, experiencing for the first time a near - complete lack of basic freedoms . He finally acquires a key that allows him to leave the makeshift jail, but finds that he has no place to escape to and only spends his time outside the jail scavenging for scraps of food . </P>

Who are the barbarians in waiting for the barbarians
find me the text answering this question