Language barrier between Romans and those they conquered.

[Viggen]

Interesting questions from our Facebook page, that i want to forward here...

 

I wonder how the ancient Romans handled the language barrier between them and those they conquered. asks Cliff Jones...

 

...any take on this how they manged?

 

cheers

viggen

[Ingsoc]

The barrier was much more minor than what one could except, the Roman were bi-language and spoke Greek as well as Latin. most of the people that they conquered had contact with the Greek civilization to some degree and so Greek was used as the lingua franca.

[Melvadius]

The barrier was much more minor than what one could except, the Roman were bi-language and spoke Greek as well as Latin. most of the people that they conquered had contact with the Greek civilization to some degree and so Greek was used as the lingua franca.

I'm not sure that I would go as far as that. Yes as far as the Eastern Empire was concerned there was a sustained Greek presence so much so that Greek eventually became the dominant language after the fall of Rome.

 

I think a truer comparison would be to consider two different aspects; military and civilian.

 

For the military consider the case of the 'modern' French Foreign legion where when you join you have to learn French irrespective of your native language. The Roman auxilliaries appear to have also had to learn Latin military commands even if they probably could continue to speak their own language when off duty.

 

In civilian life administrative documents would have been completed in Latin. This happened in more recent Empires where French, English or Portugese became the default language of the respective central administrations for their foreign 'possessions' irrespective of what the native language(s) were. From the viewpoint of any imperial power it makes much more sense to use only one language (your own) rather than trying to translate everything into numerous local languages especially if they did not have a written form when the Romans arrived.

 

Therefore in the same way within the Roman Empire, when dealing with central administrations, if you couldn't read and write Latin you would have had to get someone to translate and/or write the documents on your behalf. One of the standard phrases found in numerous letters and documents from Roman Egypt, where someone else signs documents on behalf of an individual (male or female), is 'since he/she does not know their letters'. Grubbs Women and the Law in the Roman Empire sees this phrase as an indicator of literacy although in my view rather than general literacy it may simply be an indication that the individual concerned was not literate in Latin.

 

Obviously as 'Romans' or people attempting to fit in with their foreign rulers in the local population could in most cases only have formed a very small percentage of the overall population, local languages would probably have continued in use pretty much as before although with the occasional 'loan' word added from Latin if it was more appropriate for the current conversation.

[docoflove1974]

I also wouldn't forget the role of traders, who used probably Greek or perhaps Phoenician at first as a lingua franca (depending on the area), and who many times became either linguistic experts for a given area or who had local contacts who were translators. These contacts would be useful for the Romans in general--both military and civilian--in communicating in Latin and the native language. I seem to recall that this in particular was the chain of events in Gaul and Hispania, but I'll have to check that later with my sources--so don't completely quote me on this.