FLUENT IN BOTH LANGUAGES

It is well known that, although Latin was the lingua franca of the Roman Empire, the eastern provinces continued to use Greek as their common tongue. Accordingly, administrators at every level of bureaucracy were, to some extent, bilingual. But in their daily routine, the military authorities on the fringes of the Empire must often have encountered other languages that needed to be translated. So what exactly do we know about the Roman army’s interpreters?

By Duncan B Campbell

In the summer of AD 70, as the Roman siege of Jerusalem entered its final phase, the rebel leaders requested a parley with their conqueror, the future emperor Titus. “Titus ordered his soldiers to keep control of their temper and their missiles,” writes Josephus, “and stationed an interpreter beside him” (Jewish War 6.327). As advisor to the Roman high command, Josephus had previously been sent “to address (the rebels) in their native tongue” (5.361), and only days earlier, he himself had performed the task of interpreter when “he proclaimed Caesar’s message in Hebrew” (6.97) to the Jewish multitude. (He may have meant Aramaic.) Of course, it was all in vain. It is interesting, however, to see a Roman general making the effort to engage with the enemy in their native language.…

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Ancient Warfare (Digital) - 1 Issue, AW XV.3

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