ABSTRACT
Linguistically the empire fell into two halves. In the Asiatic provinces, in Egypt and Cyrenaica, and in Greece, Epirus, Macedonia and the four provinces of Thrace south of the Haemus range, Greek was the lingua franca and the language of polite society. In the European provinces, with the exceptions named above, and in Africa up to Tripolitania inclusive, Latin fulfilled a corresponding role. The line was remarkably sharp. In Africa the boundary was the long stretch of desert between Tripolitania and Cyrenaica. In Europe there was a slight overlap; Scythia, at the mouth of the Danube, was bilingual, and there were mixed areas along the frontiers of Epirus and Macedonia. The linguistic line did not, it may be noted, correspond to political or ecclesiastical boundaries in Europe. The eastern emperors from 395 ruled the Latin-speaking diocese of Dacia, the popes exercised jurisdiction in the Greek-speaking diocese of Macedonia.
