In article , orpheus_j{at}yahoo.com
says...
>
>Matthew Johnson wrote:
>> In article , Jacob Rizor
>says...
>> >It weren't.  He spoke Aramiac.
>>
>> And don't forget: He spoke Greek, too!
>
>Isn't the naming of Peter an example of this?
>
>> You don't _really_ think He spoke with
>> the Centurion and Pontius Pilate in Aramaic, do you?
>
>This is a question from igornance, but how common was Latin amongst
>the Romans in Palestine at the time?

That depends on who you mean by 'Romans'. If you mean Romans who came to the
provinces to staff the administration, then of course they knew both Latin and
Greek. If you mean "a subject of the Empire", then no, Greek was much more
common.

>Would a Roman legion be ordered
>in Latin?

Yes.

>I'm assuming that someone at the level of a centurion would
>speak some Greek, some Latin, and possibly a native language, but\
>what about the foot-soldier?

The foot-soldiers were gathered from all over the Empire. They were not even
mostly Roman. That being the case, it would have been convenient to use Greek,
since they would already know some Greek. But it is unlikely they would have
learned the military vocabulary. So perhaps it was not so inconvenient after all
to force them to use Latin, which according to
http://www.wadsworth.com/anthropology_d/special_features/ext/earthwatch/tae.html,
is what they did.

Greek still remained the standard language in the East for most other purposes,
though, outside of Law and military.


-- 
---------------------------
Subudcat se sibi ut haereat Deo
quidquid boni habet, tribuat illi a quo factus est.
(St. Augustine, Ser. 96)

((( s.r.c.b-s is a moderated group.  All posts are approved by a moderator. )))
(((   Read http://srcbs.org for details about this group BEFORE you post.   )))
---
þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info{at}bbsworld.com

---
 * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS
 * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 1/4/05 8:10:32 PM