<P> Romans who received an elite education studied Greek as a literary language, and most men of the governing classes could speak Greek . The Julio - Claudian emperors encouraged high standards of correct Latin (Latinitas), a linguistic movement identified in modern terms as Classical Latin, and favoured Latin for conducting official business . Claudius tried to limit the use of Greek, and on occasion revoked the citizenship of those who lacked Latin, but even in the Senate he drew on his own bilingualism in communicating with Greek - speaking ambassadors . Suetonius quotes him as referring to "our two languages". </P> <P> In the Eastern empire, laws and official documents were regularly translated into Greek from Latin . The everyday interpenetration of the two languages is indicated by bilingual inscriptions, which sometimes even switch back and forth between Greek and Latin . After all freeborn inhabitants of the empire were universally enfranchised in AD 212, a great number of Roman citizens would have lacked Latin, though they were expected to acquire at least a token knowledge, and Latin remained a marker of "Romanness ." </P> <P> Among other reforms, the emperor Diocletian (reigned 284--305) sought to renew the authority of Latin, and the Greek expression hē kratousa dialektos attests to the continuing status of Latin as "the language of power ." In the early 6th century, the emperor Justinian engaged in a quixotic effort to reassert the status of Latin as the language of law, even though in his time Latin no longer held any currency as a living language in the East . </P> <P> References to interpreters indicate the continuing use of local languages other than Greek and Latin, particularly in Egypt, where Coptic predominated, and in military settings along the Rhine and Danube . Roman jurists also show a concern for local languages such as Punic, Gaulish, and Aramaic in assuring the correct understanding and application of laws and oaths . In the province of Africa, Libyco - Berber and Punic were used in inscriptions and for legends on coins during the time of Tiberius (1st century AD). Libyco - Berber and Punic inscriptions appear on public buildings into the 2nd century, some bilingual with Latin . In Syria, Palmyrene soldiers even used their dialect of Aramaic for inscriptions, in a striking exception to the rule that Latin was the language of the military . </P>

Size of the roman empire at its greatest extent