THE LANGUAGE OF POWER: LATIN IN THE

INSCRIPTIONS OF IUDAEA/SYRIA PALAESTINA*

\Verner Eck

The papyri from the Near East throw into relief a very prominent
characteristic of Roman domination: the absence of any deliberate
attempt on Rome's part to impose Latin as the normal language of
communication with her subjects. This does not mean of course that
Rome used the local languages in her communications with the sub-
jects. On the contrary: the titulus on Jesus' cross and the boastful
and arrogant inscription which the first prefect of Egypt, Cornelius
Gallus, put up at Philae 1-both of which use in addition to Latin
and Greek also Hebrew and Egyptian respectively-are obviously
the exception to the rule; normally, so it seems, the native languages
played no role at all for Rome. 2 In the Roman Near East this atti-
tude, i.e., the fact that Rome did not impose Latin nor used the
local languages, meant that Greek, the lingua franca of the Near East
since the Hellenistic period was the official language of communi-
cation between Rome and its subjects.
That this was so is demonstrated not only by the papyri from
Egypt, but also by those found in other parts of the Roman Near
East: in the Judaean Desert, near the Euphrates, and in Bostra.
Although many of these documents are addressed to representatives
of the Roman government: a benificiarius, a centurion, a praifectus
alae, the governor of Syria Cocle or Arabia himself-they are all
written in Greek.' The same is true of announcements made by

* I am grateful to Hannah Cotton, with whom I have shared the work on many
of the inscriptions discussed here, for the English translation. I have explicitly asked
her to maintain the lecture style of her original translation.
I Matt. 27:37; :t\lark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19; en III 14147, 5 = ns
8995.
' Cf. A. Wacke, "Gallisch, Punisch, Syrisch odcr Gricchisch statt Latein?" ZRG
110 (1993) 14-59.
l D. Fcissel and ]. Gascou, "Documents d'archivcs romains incdits du Moyen

Euphrate (III' s. apres J.-C.)," Jourrzal des Savants (1995) 65-119; N. Lewis, The
Docwnentsfrom the Bar Kokhba Period in the Cave of Letters: Greek Papyri (JDS 2; Jerusalem:
124 WERNER ECK

Rome's re-presentatives to her subjects-they are all in Greek. Not

one of the edicts published by the prefects of Egypt-of which we
know more than sixty by now-use Latin. 4
Altogether Latin is rarely used in communications with Rome's
subjects. And often when they had been composed in Latin, by the
time they reach us they were translated into Greek. Thus the sub-
scription of the equestrian prefect Priscus at the bottom of P.Yadin
16, Babatha's census declaration of 4 December 127, originally read
as follows: Priscus pratfoctus alae (equitum) accepi pridie nonas Decembres
Gallic ana et Titiano consulibus. 5 In this form it was posted in the basil-
ica of Rabat Moab. But in Babatha's copy the text is given in trans-
lation:
Tipti:cKoc ?'!tapxoc bm£mv £8£~UJ.!TJV 1:T\ npo J.ltilc vmviOv ll£KEJ.l~pimv ima1:iac
faA.At]([av]qu [Kat Tmavo]V. 6

With the exception of brief subscriptions in Latin, e.g., by the prae-

fictus Mesopotamiae Iulius Priscus who substituted for the governor of
Syria Coele (ot£nmv 'tllV una1:Eiav) in 245 7 or by the imperial freed-
man procurator Aelius Amphigetes in the province of Syria Palaestina
in 152, 8 there are no Latin texts originating from the Roman provin-
cial administration in the Roman Near East. A libellus (petition)
addressed to the governor of Syria Palaestina, V eli us Fidus, in Caesarea
and composed in Latin in 150, 9 or military papyri from Masada and

Israel Exploration Society/Hebrew University of Jerusalem/Shrine of the Book,

1989); H.M. Cotton and A. Y ardeni, Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek Documentary Texts from
Na~al !fever and Other Sites with an Appendix Containing Alleged Qymran Texts (7he Seiydl
Collection II) (DJD 27; Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997) 158-279.
4 See the collection in R. Katzoff, "Sources of Law in Roman Egypt: The Role

of the Prefect," ANRW 11.13 (Berlin: W. de Gruyter, 1980) 807-44; G. Purpura,

"Gli editti dei prefetti d'Egitto, I sec. a. C.-I sec. d. C.," Annali Sem. giur. Univ.
Palermo 42 (1992) 487-671; further, SB XVIII 13849; BGU XVI 2558; IFAO III
34; P.Oxy. LI 3613 (I am grateful to Andreajordens for her help).
'' P.Yadin 16:36-38.
6 See H.M. Cotton, "Subscriptions and Signatures in the Papyri from the Judaean

Desert: The XEIPOXPHCTHC," JJP 25 (1996) 29-40, where she discusses also the
Greek translation of the subscription to the declaration of Ignotus son of Levy in
P.Hever 61, published in Cotton and Yardeni, Aramaic, Hebrew and Greek Documentary
Texts.
7 Sec Feissel and Gascou, "Documents d'archives romains," no. I.
8 SB XII 11043; Chl.A XI 466; on which see W. Eck, "Ein Prokuratorenpaar

von Syria Palaestina in P. Berol. 21652," ZPE 123 (1998) 249-55.

9 PSI IX I 026 = CIL XVI p. 146, no. 13 = S. Daris, Documenti per fa storia dell'

esercito in Egitto (Milan: Societa editrice Vita e pensiero, 1964) 194-200 = CPL 117