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Directions: Read the background information about the Latin language and the primary source document on how Rome spread it to help you answer the questions on your worksheet.
Part 1: Background Information
Roman power spread militarily, economically, and politically. The Romans conquered Italy, then most of western and southern Europe, and finally the central and western Mediterranean coastal regions of Africa. As the Romans conquered each place, some men from these places became Roman soldiers, and as a result, people from the different territories traveled and intermixed. Some rulers, like Gnaeus Julius Agricola, the governor of Britain from 78-84 CE, encouraged their populace to adopt Roman customs, including Latin, originally the local language Latium, the region surrounding Rome. As Roman leaders sponsored the construction of new buildings and the education of aristocracy, the popularity of all things Roman grew. This distribution of Roman customs, technology, and language was called Romanization.
Different economic classes used different forms of Latin. Classical Latin was the language of literature, government records, and the Patrician upper classes who could afford slave tutors to teach their children this version of Latin's very formal and rule oriented style. Conversely, the Vulgar Latin spoken by Rome's Plebeian lower classes was more casual and familiar. This difference can be seen in modern English with the more formal "good morning father" vs the casual "hi dad."
Rome's spread of Latin would far outlast their civilization with 44 modern languages being based in it. Collectively these are called "Romance Languages" with Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian being the most spoken. Over 1 billion people, or 1/7th of the world's population, today speak romance languages as their first language.
The family tree of the larger Romance Languages tracing their origins back to Latin.
The spread of Romance Languages across the world today. The darker the blue indicates a higher percentage of total population speakers in that region.
Part 2: Primary Source
Latin the Official Language
Indeed the manner in which the magistrates of olden times conducted themselves in order to maintain their dignity and the sovereign power of the Roman people can be understood by the fact that, among other evidences of how they acquired dignity, there was this practice, which they observed with great steadfastness, never to answer the Greeks except in Latin. Further, resting from them the fluency of speech in which they excel, they forced them to speak through an interpreter, not only in our city, but also in Greece and Asia, in order, doubtless, to diffuse the Latin language among all peoples and to make it more respectable. Not that they lacked an interest in learning, but they thought that in every matter the Greek cloak should be subjugated to the toga, thinking it an indignity that the weight and the majesty of the empire should be bestowed upon the allurements and delight of literature.
Valerius Maximus, Memorable Deeds and Sayings II.ii.2
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