On Fri 27 Mar 2020 at 17:35:19 (+0300), Reco wrote: I think we can agree that the Romans spoke Latin!
Actually, Latin was the official, legal language of Rome. The previous conquests of Alexander the Great established the Koine dialect of Greek as the "lingua franca" of the Ancient World. Koine (meaning "common") was the language of commerce and trade. Because both Latin and Koine were in constant use, there are many "exact equivalents" between Latin and Koine words and phrases. I expect that, for Romans in general, fluency in Koine may have been more common that fluency in Latin. RLH
