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There was never an official language of the empire, however, Latin and Greek were the main languages. [16] During the early years of the Roman Empire, educated nobles often relied on their knowledge of Greek to meet societal expectations, and knowledge of Latin was useful for a career in the military, government, or law. [17]
The Romance languages, a major branch of the Indo-European language family, comprise all languages that descended from Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. The Romance languages have more than 700 million native speakers worldwide, mainly in the Americas , Europe , and Africa , as well as in many smaller regions scattered through the world.
The term Romance derives from the Vulgar Latin adverb romanice, "in Roman", derived from romanicus: for instance, in the expression romanice loqui, "to speak in Roman" (that is, the Latin vernacular), contrasted with latine loqui, "to speak in Latin" (Medieval Latin, the conservative version of the language used in writing and formal contexts ...
The capital of the Western Roman Empire was moved to Ravenna. 406: 31 December: Crossing of the Rhine: A coalition of foreign tribes including the Vandals, Alans and Suebi invaded the Western Roman Empire across the Rhine. 408: 1 May: Arcadius died. 410: 24 August: Sack of Rome (410): Rome was sacked by the Visigoths under their king Alaric I.
The new city, however, did not receive an urban prefect until 359 which raised it to the status of eastern capital. After the death of Theodosius in 395 and the subsequent division of the Empire, Italy was home base of the Western Roman Empire. As a result of Alaric's invasion in 402 the western seat was moved from Mediolanum to Ravenna.
The Roman Empire ruled the Mediterranean and much of Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The Romans conquered most of this during the Republic, and it was ruled by emperors following Octavian's assumption of effective sole rule in 27 BC.
The "Roman imperial period" in this sense would end with the reforms under Diocletian and the beginning of the Christianization of the Roman Empire. The period is roughly equivalent in span to the "Principate", the early period of Roman imperial rule from Augustus to Diocletian (r. 284–305), succeeded by the "Dominate".
British Latin or British Vulgar Latin was the Vulgar Latin spoken in Great Britain in the Roman and sub-Roman periods. While Britain formed part of the Roman Empire, Latin became the principal language of the elite and in the urban areas of the more romanised south and east of the island.