[Authors and titles are listed at the end of the review]
Un empire, plusieurs langues represents the proceedings of a conference of the same title held at the Université Paris Nanterre in October 2023. The book is not conceptually ambitious, insofar as it offers a collection of heterogeneous case studies rather than a sustained theoretical intervention. Yet the uniformly high quality of the individual contributions renders the volume a valuable one. As the editors state in their introduction, the collection proposes a plural—and indeed interdisciplinary—approach to the question of multilingualism in antiquity. It constitutes, more specifically, a francophone contribution to the subject. The volume does not aspire to overturn paradigms or to formulate grand theoretical questions; rather, its interest lies in the sixteen carefully executed studies through which readers are invited to explore particular aspects of ancient linguistic plurality.
The book is not designed to be read consecutively, whether as a whole or in thematic clusters, since the chapters themselves are not formally organized into sections. In the introduction, the editors nonetheless attempt to group the contributions thematically, though the boundaries between these categories remain somewhat indistinct, insofar as the proposed groupings do not always operate at the same conceptual level and several chapters could comfortably fit within more than one rubric. The thematic divisions proposed are as follows: (1) “Opposition between the unity of the empire and the multiplicity of languages” (a title never explicitly stated, though the editors place here the chapters by F. Biville and L. Méry); (2) “Languages in contact and hybridity” (G. Bonnet, E. Dupraz, C. Ruiz Darasse, M. L. Rebora); (3) “Code-switching” (B. Rochette, M. H. Garelli); (4) “Language and identity” (L. Sznajder, M. Coltelloni-Trannoy, L. Lerouge-Cohen); (5) “Multilingualism and/or plurilingualism in the provinces” (M. A. Janin, C. Ruiz Darasse again, J.-P. Laporte, Y. Guermeur, S. Lippert, and N. Vanthieghem); and finally (6) “One empire, many ‘Latins’” (P. Płocharz and M. Banniard). This, indeed, is the order in which the chapters appear.
A diachronic organization, or alternatively one structured around the nature of the evidence employed, might perhaps have proved clearer for the reader. Contributions devoted to Semitic languages (Hebrew, Punic) are interspersed with studies concerning Palaeo-European languages (that is, languages spoken in Europe prior to the Roman conquest: Gaulish, Iberian, Umbrian) and other ancient languages (Libyan, Egyptian, and Persian).[1] Nor are the chapters grouped according to the type of source material (literary or epigraphic). The volume is thus a repository from which readers will select the studies most relevant to their own interests. Yet conference proceedings are notoriously difficult to shape into a wholly unified publication, and their final form often depends upon a variety of practical constraints.
In their introduction, the editors offer a brief reflection on multilingualism in the Roman world, though one that might have been more expansive and theoretically nuanced. One notes, for example, a somewhat direct equation of language and identity, the invocation of “national identity” (p. 11), and the extrapolation of ethnic or social belonging from isolated instances of code-switching. Yet, as the editors themselves acknowledge, such theoretical intervention was not the principal aim of the volume. The status quaestionis likewise leaves the reader somewhat dissatisfied. Reference is made almost exclusively to Mullen and James 2012 and to the collective volume edited by Roure in 2023, while the work of James Noel Adams (Adams 2003 is mentioned in a footnote), the publications associated with the LatinNow project, and a substantial body of Italian- and Spanish-language scholarship are omitted..[2]
The first section of the volume, devoted to the tension between imperial unity and linguistic plurality, opens with Frédérique Biville’s chapter on lexical Wanderwörter. Biville examines the ways in which the same term appears across different languages, whether through direct borrowing or accidental homophony, emphasizing the role of Greek as an intermediary language within this multilingual environment. Liza Méry follows with a collection of testimonia concerning the metaphorical “granting of citizenship” to foreign words in Latin authors. Particularly interesting is the manner in which such writers associate—or decline to associate—the intrusion of foreign vocabulary with linguistic decline.
The second section gathers a number of heterogeneous contributions under the rubric “Languages in contact and hybridity,” though the concept of “hybridity” itself remains sufficiently broad as to encompass almost any form of linguistic interaction. Guillaume Bonnet opens the section with an analysis of the preservation—or alteration—of the language, accent, and orthography of non-Latin terms in Latin grammatical works, especially in Virgil and Varro. Emmanuel Dupraz, a recognized specialist on the Iguvine Tables, contributes a comparative study of the syntax and lexicon of the regulations of the Fratres Atiedii at Iguvium. His aim is to identify the influence of Rome and of Latin upon these texts, while also isolating elements belonging to a broader Italic textual koinē as well as specifically Umbrian features. Although Dupraz identifies certain points of convergence with Roman documents such as senatus consulta, he ultimately emphasizes the distinctive characteristics of this Iguvine priestly college. Maria Luisa Rebora’s contribution concerns multilingual inscriptions for Jewish children at Rome. Despite the limited size of her corpus—six inscriptions—the author offers a rich contextualization of multilingual epigraphy among Roman Jews and raises pertinent questions concerning the linguistic practices of the community. Her examples suggest clear competence in Greek, whereas Hebrew appears largely confined to fossilized formulae, that is, forms of tag-switching, indicative of the language’s diminished vitality within the milieu under study. Coline Ruiz Darasse closes the section with a phonetically oriented study proposing a compelling hypothesis regarding Iberian rhotics. She observes that in Iberian inscriptions from western Languedoc (Ensérune, Pech Maho, Ruscino, Vieille Toulouse), the marked rhotic <ŕ> appears only in non-Iberian words, thereby opening an attractive line of inquiry potentially applicable to the wider Iberian corpus.
The volume approaches code-switching primarily through literary sources. Bruno Rochette examines four passages from Lucilius in which the second-century BCE satirist, who styled himself Semigraecus, employed Greek code-switching in order to characterize—and at times ridicule—particular figures. Marie-Hélène Garelli pursues a similar line of inquiry in Plautus, an author several centuries earlier than Lucilius, who likewise exploited multilingual effects. This is a genuinely stimulating contribution, introducing readers to the principal scholarly debates while showing how Plautus deployed code-switching to construct an atmosphere of cultural ambiguity, notably through the introduction of a third language, Punic, in the celebrated Poenulus.
The section entitled “Language and identity” is devoted largely to onomastics and translation. Lyliane Sznajder inaugurates the section with a methodologically sophisticated study of the translation of anthroponyms, theonyms, and toponyms in the Bible from Hebrew into Greek and Latin, asking under what circumstances names were translated—or not. The chapter also discusses the explanatory glosses of Augustine of Hippo. Michèle Coltelloni-Trannoy continues the nexus of onomastics, identity, and the Semitic world in a chapter devoted to the translation of names in North African neo-Punic and Libyan epigraphy. She surveys the full range of adaptive strategies—assonance, borrowing, translation—as well as the incorporation of characteristically Roman onomastic structures into the North African context. The contribution also includes an updated overview of the laudatory expressions attested especially in neo-Punic epigraphy of Lepcis Magna, probably inherited from Hellenistic formulaic traditions.
Jean-Pierre Laporte’s chapter is the first explicitly devoted to multilingualism in the provinces. His richly illustrated study focuses upon the Libyan epigraphic corpus of ancient Kabylia, where Libyan and Punic coexisted before the subsequent introduction of Latin. Lerouge-Cohen’s contribution, though presented in the introduction under the heading “Language and identity,” also fits comfortably within the broader question of provincial multilingualism. She examines the survival of Persian in Pontus and Cappadocia during the first half of the third century BCE, an especially challenging problem given that the extant evidence, written in Aramaic and Cappadocian, offers no unequivocal proof for the vitality of Iranian speech. Guermeur, Lippert, and Vanthieghem, for their part, present the results of fieldwork at Athribis in Middle Egypt, where an extraordinary deposit of 38,000 inscribed ostraca dating from the Ptolemaic period to the Arab conquest has been uncovered. The longue durée represented by the Athribis archive permits the authors to illustrate two major moments of linguistic transition: the shift from Egyptian to Greek and later to Arabic, as well as the persistence of Egyptian through Coptic. Finally, Marie-Adeline Janin contributes a study of one of the most important Gaulish epigraphic corpora, that of Alesia, noteworthy for its use of both the Greek alphabet (Gallo-Greek) and the Latin alphabet (Gallo-Latin) during the period of Latinization. Janin also publishes an unpublished Gallo-Greek graffito and devotes a substantial discussion to the important lapidary Gallo-Greek inscription of Samotalos.
The volume closes with two contributions on varieties of Latin. Piotr Płocharz investigates whether ancient works on Latin linguistics displayed any genuinely diachronic perspective, concluding that ancient, medieval, and Renaissance grammarians largely lacked a historical conception of linguistic change because language itself was understood as essentially stable. Finally, Michel Banniard seeks to capture what Sidonius Apollinaris called the “sound-colours” of post-imperial Latin, examining passages from Augustine, Praeiectus in Merovingian Latin (Auvergne, mid-seventh century), a Merovingian inscription from Poitiers, Valerius of Bierzo in Visigothic Latin, and forms of Latin colored respectively by Occitan and Tuscan speech habits.
From a formal standpoint, the volume is carefully produced, with only two typographical errors detected, both in the introduction (“Mulen” for “Mullen,” p. 10; “Bilinguism” for “Bilingualism” in an English title, p. 12). Illustrations are confined to the epigraphic contributions.
In sum, the sixteen studies collected here will prove valuable to specialists interested in the particular linguistic, literary, and epigraphic questions addressed throughout the volume.
Authors and titles
Introduction générale (Bernard Bortolussi et Étienne Wolff)
- Plusieurs langues, un même mot (Frédérique Biville)
- Vocabula ciuitate donata. La métaphore de la citoyenneté dans la réflexion romaine sur la langue (Liza Méry)
- Graphie et statut linguistique dans les textes grammaticaux latins (Varron et les Commentaires serviens de Virgile), (Guillaume Bonnet)
- Les Règlements des Frères Atiedii entre tradition ombrienne et contacts avec le Latium (Emmanuel Dupraz)
- Phénomènes de bilinguisme/trilinguisme et de code-switching dans les épitaphes d’enfants des catacombes juives de Rome (Marie-Laure Rebora)
- L’adaptation de noms celtiques et latins à l’écriture paléohispanique. À propos de la notation d’un son /r/ (Coline Ruiz Darasse)
- Verbis Graeca Latinis miscuit. Quatre exemples de code-switching chez Lucilius (Bruno Rochette)
- Multilinguisme et bilinguisme dans les comédies de Plaute. Jeux culturels et expérimentation théâtrale (Marie-Hélène Garelli)
- Les noms propres de la Bible hébraïque : leurs traductions grecque et latine (Lyliane Sznajder)
- “Dis-moi quel est ton nom, je te dirai qui tu es”, ou la traduction des noms: une histoire sociale (Michèle Coltelloni Tranoy)
- Multilinguisme dans la Kabylie antique (Jean-Pierre Laporte)
- La situation linguistique dans les royaumes du Pont et de Cappadoce: le cas de la langue perse (Charlotte Lerouge-Cohen)
- L’évolution du paysage linguistique égyptien au prisme du matériel récemment mis au jour à Atripé (Moyenne-Égypte) (Ivan Guermeur, Sandra Lippert et Naïm Vanthieghem)
- Gaulois et latin en Gaule de l’Est : quelques observations à partir d’un nouvel inventaire de l’épigraphie d’Alésia (Ier s. a.C.-Ier s. p.C.) (Marie-Anaïs Janin)
- Abest enim historia litteris nostris (Cic., Leg., 1.5). Y avait-il une approche historicisante dans la réflexion linguistique des Romains? (Piotr Plocharz)
- Les couleurs du latin après l’Empire en Occident (Michel Banniard)
Notes
[1] On Palaeo-European, see Francisco Beltrán Lloris, “Palaeo-European studies: languages, writings, epigraphic cultures”, Palaeohispanica 20, 13-25. The introduction to the book under review mistakenly identifies the Iguvine Tables as Oscan.
[2] Alex Mullen, Patrick James (eds.), Multilingualism in the Graeco-Roman Worlds. Cambridge University Press, 2012; Réjane Roure (ed.), Multilinguisme dans la Méditerranée antique. Presses Universitaires de Bordeaux, 2023; James Noel Adams, Bilingualism and the Latin Language. Cambridge University Press, 2003.