ABSTRACT
The culture of the inhabitants of the city of Rome in the High Empire reflected their diverse origins. Greeks, Syrians, Jews and others retained Greek as their main language, and other minority groups continued to use their national tongues, at least for the first generation or so after immigration (see Figure 27). Their religious customs, from cultic worship to the Sabbath and other practices, spread beyond the confines of such groups to the rest of the population. So too, doubtless, did tastes in food and entertainment, though these are more difficult to document, but this lively cultural interchange was only marginally reflected in the prestige culture based on the imperial court, and about which most can be said.
