Greek East and Latin West

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"Greek East" and "Latin West" are terms used to distinguish between the two parts of the Greco-Roman world, specifically the eastern regions where Greek was the lingua franca, and the western parts where Latin filled this role. During the Roman Empire a divide had persisted between Latin- and Greek-speaking areas; this divide was encouraged by administrative changes in the empire's structure between the 3rd and 5th centuries, which led ultimately to the establishment of separate Eastern and Western Roman Empires.


Use with regard to the Roman Empire[edit]

In the classical context, "Greek East" refers to the provinces and client states of the Roman Empire in which the lingua franca was primarily Greek.


At the start of late antiquity, beginning with the reorganization of the empire's provincial divisions during the reign of Diocletian (ruled 284-305), the expression "Greek East" evolved to stand in contradistinction to "Latin West". Thereafter, "Greek East" refers to the Greek-speaking provinces mentioned above (after 395 mostly in the Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire) in contradistinction to the provinces in Western Europe, Italia (excluding the Catepanate of Italy, where they still spoke Greek) and Northwest Africa (after 395 in the Latin-speaking Western Roman Empire).[1]

Use with regard to Christianity[edit]

"Greek East" and "Latin West" are terms used also to divide Chalcedonian Christianity into the Greek-speaking, Orthodox peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin, centered around the Byzantine Empire, and the Latin-speaking Catholic peoples of Western Europe.[2][3] Here, "Latin West" applies to regions that were formerly part of the Western Roman Empire, specifically Italia, Gaul, Hispania, Northern Africa, and Britannia, but also to areas that had never been part of the Empire but which later came under the culture sphere of the Latin West, such as Ireland, Scotland, and eastern Germany.

The adjective "Greek" excludes those communities in Eastern Christianity that use languages such as Syriac and, in opposition to Constantinople, form, since the Council of Chalcedon (451), what is now called Oriental Orthodoxy. No such distinction applies to the West, where Latin continued to be the language of culture for many centuries after its breakup into a number of independent states.

See also[edit]


  3. ^ Andrew Louth, Greek East and Latin West: The Church AD 691-1071 (St Vladimir's Seminary Press ISBN 978-0-88141-320-5)