Taking the Measure of the Ancient World Europe,includingeventuallyBritain,andcentralEuropedowntheDanube
totheBlackSea,withastrikingextensionintoDacia,present-dayRomania.
Theeffect,therefore,wastoproduce,bythefirstfewcenturies..,adual
Graeco-Romanculture,expressedinGreek,Latin,orboth,fromtheTigris
totheAtlantic,orfromElephantineontheUpperNiletoHadrian’sWall.
Itisworthemphasisingthesheerscaleofthisprocess.Modernestimates
(orratherguesses)wouldputthepopulationoftheRomanEmpireatsome-
thinglikemillionpeople.Itisimportanttostressthatwhatwasproduced
wasadualculture,GreekandLatin,inwhichtheconstituentsofLatincul-
tureowedfarmoretoGreekcultureandtraditionthantheotherwayround.
The Roman army did of course carry the Latin language, and even Latin
literature,toeverycorneroftheEmpire.Withinthepastfewyearsnewdis-
coverieshavedemonstratedhowthearmytookthetextoftheAeneidwith
it to its furthest outposts: a line of theAeneid(, ) fromVindolanda is
echoedbyanother(,)fromMasada,thegreatrockbytheDeadSeawhich
theRomanarmyoccupiedafteritsdefenders,inthelaststageoftheJewish
Revolt,hadcommittedsuicidein..or.
Butthefirstofthetwofundamentalfactswhichoneneedstograspabout
the Roman Empire, is that ‘‘Latinisation,’’ never in any case seriously at-
tempted,madeverylittleprogressintheGreek-speakingEast.Thereisfor
instance no certain proof that anyone translated any of Virgil into Greek
untilintheearlyfourthcenturytheemperorConstantineproducedsome
oftheFourth EclogueinGreekforthebenefitofanassemblyofbishops.
Moreimportant,intheeasternhalfoftheEmpire,thelanguageofordi-
narylife,andeven(largely)ofpublicbusiness,remainedGreek.Itwouldbe
areasonableestimatethat,atallstagesinthehistoryoftheRomanEmpire,
itcontainedmorenativespeakersofGreekthanof Latin.Thusitwasthat
theresurvivedacontinuoustraditionofGreekculturethroughtheHellenis-
ticperiod,throughtheRomanEmpireofthefirstthreecenturies..,past
thefoundationbyConstantineofConstantinople,situatedatthestrategic
pointontheroutebetweenDanubeandEuphrates,pastthefalloftheRoman
EmpireintheWestinthefifthcentury,andonintotheByzantineworld.
But the otheressential fact about the Roman Empire is equally impor-
tant.ThatisthediffusionofLatinsoastobecomenotjustthelanguageof
Empire,butthatofordinaryspeech,inthenon-Greekregions.When,forty
yearsago,myheadboyjustassumedthatonedidnotreally‘‘thinkabout’’
Latin,Ifearthathewasright.InthecaseofItalyitself,Gaul,andSpain,we
canbecertainthatintheendapopularlanguagewhichhadevolvedoutof
Latindidbecomethemainlanguageofordinaryspeech.Butwhen,bywhat
stages,andbywhatsocialoreducationalprocesses?Hadthesamebeentrue