Guest lecture by Prof. Speidel: Learning Latin in the Roman Army

The Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology, University of Warsaw, is pleased to host an open guest lecture by Prof. Michael A. Speidel from the University of Zurich. The lecture, titled “Learning Latin in the Roman Army,” will be conducted in a hybrid format and hosted by Prof. Radosław Karasiewicz-Szczypiorski.

Dr. Michael A. Speidel is professor of Ancient History at the University of Zürich, Switzerland and currently holds a scholarship at the University of Istanbul, Türkiye. He studied Ancient History, Egyptology, Latin, Archaeology, and other Ancient World Sciences at the Universities of Zürich, Basel, Heidelberg, and Oxford. His fields of research include social, cultural, military, administrative, economic, and political history of the Late Hellenistic and Roman periods, as well as Roman epigraphy, numismatics, and papyrology. He is the author and co-author of several books and numerous articles. He taught Greek and Roman History at universities in Switzerland, several countries of the European Union, North America, and the Near East. He served as the ‘Director of the Mavors-Institute for Ancient Military History’ and received several grants and academic honours, including guest and research professorships in France, Germany, Poland, Türkiye, and Switzerland. He is a corresponding member of the German Archaeological Institute and co-editor of the “Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik”.

Abstract: “Although this lecture, contrary to some recently expressed views, accepts that Latin was the official language of the Roman army, it challenges the common view that soldiers and veterans were key vectors of linguistic change in the provinces of the Roman Empire. The argument brought forth is based mainly on the demographic realities in the provinces, in which, numerically, soldiers and veterans made up far too small a proportion of the population to have had a notable impact on the spreading of Latin into non-Latin speaking communities.

Moreover, at the level of the rank and file, service in the army required only a basic knowledge of Latin. Non-native speakers of Latin therefore only needed to acquire advanced levels of the language of the Romans if they intended to advance to higher ranks. Finally, a significant number of auxiliary veterans returned to their former homes after discharge and naturally used their native tongue when communicating with the local population. Hence, such veterans hardly contributed to the diffusion of Latin in the provinces. The Roman army, therefore, does not emerge as a major agent in the spreading of Latin in the Western provinces.”

The lecture will be held on Thursday, 27th March 2025, at 12 pm (Warsaw time).