Re: Romaion (not "Byzantine") Coins and Culture

On Dec 1, 12:20 pm, Reid Goldsborough <reidgoldsboro...@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
No, it wasn't. Greek was spoken in the East, and some people
originally from Greece or Asia Minor or Syria ...
But Greek wasn't spoken in the lands Rome conquered elsewhere,

Greek was spoken by Sicilians, about half the island for about 500
years before the Romans showed up.

If you open a book -- I suggest Sear's two-volume work on ancient
Greek coins -- you will see all of the Greek towns around the
Mediterranean.

Naples, (Neopolis) Even today, in Naples, some people nod their heads
to mean "no" in the Greek manner. Tarento, Masillia (Marseilles:
Bouillabaisse being a Greek fish stew, the town founded by Greeks
600BC). Nice (Nikaia = Victory) founded by Greeks from Masillia
(Marseilles). The Greek town of Emporion ("trade") in Spain is known
today as Ampurias, nearly the same name.

At the Crucifixion, Jesus was met by man from Cyrene. Kyrene was an
old Greek town, founded by Dorians from Thera. In the generation
after Jesus, Jews and Greeks from Cyrene went to Rome to petition the
emperor to arbitrate a settlement between them. Cyrene in in North
Africa, near where Benghazi is today in Libya. Tripoli, of course is
the Greek name. Tarabulos is how they pronounce it today.

When you say "people in the streets of Rome" you are, of course,
referring to the nexus of an empire that spanned three continents.
So, you really have to specify which people you mean. Many spoke
Greek while going about town. Your claim reduces to the tautology
that in Rome, people who did not speak Greek did not speak Greek.

"But Caesar, when he reached Pompey's ramparts and saw those of the
enemy who were already lying dead there and those who were still
falling, said with a groan: "They would have it so; they brought me to
such a pass that if I, Caius Caesar, after waging successfully the
greatest wars, had dismissed my forces, I should have been condemned
in their courts."82 2 Asinius Pollio says that these words, which
Caesar afterwards wrote down in Greek, were uttered by him in Latin at
the time..." and again at the Assassination... "At almost the same
instant both cried out, the smitten man in Latin: "Accursed Casca,
what does thou?" and the smiter, in Greek, to his brother: "Brother,
help!" "-- Plutarch's CAESAR.

That the people of the Greek lands continued to speak Greek within the
context of the Roman empire is no surprise and their speaking Greek
does not cast any shadow on their being Romans.
.

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