Lessons in Greek

6 Responses to “Why did the Roman Empire switch its official language to greek around the 7th century?”

1. Glenn Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am

   By then the Western Roman Empire had been totally over-run. All that was left was the Eastern (or Byzantine) Empire, with it’s capital at Constantinople. It was almost inevitable that Greek culture would become dominant.

   Just done some quick checking – The Emperor Heraclius took the decision because by then Latin as official language was an absurdity. It was only used in the civil service and parts of the army – the church did not use it and the vast majority of Byzantine citizens didn’t understand a word of it. Making the everyday language the official language was simple common sense.

2. Bob The fishmonger Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am

   all I know (here say) is that the romans thought the Greeks where a very au-couture.

3. Alex K Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am

   is because Greece conquered roman empire and they decided to start talking in Greek

4. Rico, JPA Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am

   Because by then virtually all Government and Commerce were being conducted in Greek. The western half of the Empire had finally collapse with the Goths dethroning and young Romulus Augustilus. The Eastern half of the empire (which we refer to as the Byzantine Empire) stayed on course for another thousand years. One hundred years later, without the need to communicate with the Western half, Latin had fallen into disuse. It was already dead in the Eastern Mediterranean, so it only remained for government to make it official.

5. Lissard Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am

   Greek became the language of the educated and the cultured society. The Greeks were so highly advanced that, when they were conquered by the Romans they contributed to the civilization.

6. Scott L Says:
   November 14th, 2009 at 11:36 am

   The idea of an official language did not exist at the time. People spoke whatever language they spoke.
   Long before the 7th century, the Roman Empire had extended into many regions where the language was not Latin. Among them in the East were many Greek-speaking communities. In Egypt the common people spoke a language closely related to Coptic, while the rulers spoke Greek from the time of Alexander’s conquest. When the Western Empire declined and the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire survived, Greek of course became the dominant tongue there. In the West, Latin gave rise to the romance group of modern languages – Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Ladino, French, Catalan, Romansch, and Romanian. All these languages had (and many still have) many regional dialects.
   Long before those events, however, educated Romans whose native language was Latin had high respect for Greek culture and learned Greek in school.