the eastern empire adopted greek in replacement of latin.
the eastern empire adopted greek in replacement of latin.
the eastern empire adopted which language in replacement of latin?
greek
in 395, the army used latin as its operating language. this continued to be the case into the late 6th century, despite the fact that greek was the common language of the eastern empire. this was not simply due to tradition, but also to the fact that about half the eastern army continued to be recruited in the latin-speaking danubian regions of the eastern empire. an analysis of known origins of "comitatenses" in the period 350-476 shows that in the eastern army, the danubian regions provided 54% of the total sample, despite constituting just 2 of the 7 eastern dioceses (administrative divisions): dacia and thracia. these regions continued to be the prime recruiting grounds for the east roman army e.g. the emperor justin i (r. 518-27), uncle of justinian i, was a latin-speaking peasant who never learnt to speak more than rudimentary greek. the romanized thracian (thraco-roman) and illyrian inhabitants of those regions, who came to be known as vlachs by foreigners in the middle ages, retained the roman name (romanians) and the latin tongue.
east roman army
despite the plunder he now had from capturing aquileia, milan, and other cities, attila was quickly placed in a precarious situation, due to the actions of both eastern and western rome. in italy, he was seriously lacking in funds, due to not receiving subsidies from either eastern or western rome for two years, and his forces were depleted from the constant warfare. additionally, his homeland was threatened by the eastern empire which, despite punitive raids ordered by attila, took the offensive against the hungarian plain in mid 452, attacking across the danube and inflicting a defeat upon the huns. the area attacked by the eastern romans was home to ostrogoths and gepids, two groups bitterly opposed to hunnic rule, and was the breadbasket of the hunnic empire. the loss of food supply from attila's own land was coupled with the famine that italy was suffering at the time, along with a plague that followed it, which placed yet more strain upon attila, allowing the western roman empire to bribe him into retreating to his homeland. after returning to the hungarian plain, he threatened to invade the eastern empire in the next spring, and enslave the entirety of it. marcian and aspar ignored his threats, as they reasoned, based upon the previous treaties which attila had broken, that attila could not be permanently deterred by gold, of which the eastern empire had given approximately six tons to appease attila. they reasoned that this gold would be better spent building up armies, than appeasing threats, and that the rich asiatic and oriental provinces, which were protected behind constantinople, were secure enough to allow the eastern empire to retake any european provinces it might lose. this campaign never came to fruition, as attila died unexpectedly in 453, either from hemorrhaging or alcoholic suffocation, after celebrating a marriage to one of his many wives. after the death of attila, his tribal confederation rapidly fell apart, starting first with the rebellions of the ostrogoths, but within a year escalating to full-blown fragmentation.
marcian