Re:What Do We Get Wrong About the Byzantine Empire?
by coldtea on Tuesday February 27, 2024 @06:12AM
(#39522692)
>You may be mistaking the fact that the Romance languages would come to dominate in the former territories of the Roman Empire in Western Europe for some sort of significance of speaking Latin
The Roman emperors spoke latin, and that was the language of the senate, army, and politics in general, as well as everyday life in Rome. A latin ancenstry was also a must for the most part - even supposedly "ethnic" emperors are usually just descendants of latin parents, Roman royalty or army deployed in some part of the empire.
That the elites also were taught Greek as a cultural thing is another matter. For cultivation it was ancient (attic) Greek that they read classical Greek texts in, not Koine. Byzantium had both: the people spoke Koine Greek, but the "higher education" Greek in which "serious" literature and treatises was written, and which was taught, was attic, the Greek dialect of ancient Athens.
The population in the whole eastern part of the Empire, did speak Koine Greek, a big majority as their native tongue, and others as a trade language (or in older Greek settlements). The latter that was more commonly the case for the western provinces when it came to Greek too.
The Roman emperors spoke latin, and that was the language of the senate, army, and politics in general, as well as everyday life in Rome. A latin ancenstry was also a must for the most part - even supposedly "ethnic" emperors are usually just descendants of latin parents, Roman royalty or army deployed in some part of the empire.
That the elites also were taught Greek as a cultural thing is another matter. For cultivation it was ancient (attic) Greek that they read classical Greek texts in, not Koine. Byzantium had both: the people spoke Koine Greek, but the "higher education" Greek in which "serious" literature and treatises was written, and which was taught, was attic, the Greek dialect of ancient Athens.
The population in the whole eastern part of the Empire, did speak Koine Greek, a big majority as their native tongue, and others as a trade language (or in older Greek settlements). The latter that was more commonly the case for the western provinces when it came to Greek too.