How barbarian were the Barbarians?

[Alanus]

Hdt. 1.1.0
This is the display of the inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that things done by man not be forgotten in time, and that great and marvelous deeds, some displayed by the Hellenes, some by the barbarians, not lose their glory, including among others what was the cause of their waging war on each other.

And, too, we must remember that Herodotus also referred to the Persians as barbarians, a society that we can hardly picture as such. They were simply speakers of a "non-Greek" language.
If we can gather anything from Herodotus, it might appear his respect for barbarians as equally intelligent to the Greeks, and that their society might have been different but not "lesser."