Wiener Studien 136/2023, pp. 185-208, 2023/07/11
Zeitschrift für Klassische Philologie, Patristik und lateinische Tradition
Did the knowledge of Greek language in the western half of the Roman Empire, especially as regards Symmachus and his peers, undergo a sharp decline in the fourth century? Did the Greek speaking, well-learned bilinguals of the eastern half usually content themselves with just a basic knowledge of Latin? This paper reads anew some passages of contemporary authors in order to gain useful clues about both issues; our reading focuses on Symm. epist. 1,15. The eventual purpose, as for the prosopography of Latin authors and the history of literary culture in the fourth century, is to show that there were others like Ammianus Marcellinus and Claudian amongst the well-learned provincials from the Greek speaking East.
