Sprachpolitik im Römischen Reich. Zur Frage einer Angenommenen Sprachpolitischen Reform unter der Tetrarchie

It is a well known fact that the system of the official communication of the Roman Empire had undergone a striking change after Diocletian's accession (284): Latin came into prominence and was used exclusively in the Eastern imperial administration where Greek had played an important role before Diocletian. So far this prominence of Latin has commonly been interpreted as an effect of a radical change in the language policy of the Roman state, claiming that Diocletian and Constantine I had introduced a new intolerant and aggressive language policy in the framework of the rehabilitation of the Roman Empire. In my paper I try to demonstrate that this alleged aggressive language policy never existed and that the prominence of Latin in the Eastern part of the Empire spontaneously resulted from the bureaucratic and governmental transformation of the Roman Empire that significantly increased the prestige of the Latin language. © 2010 Akadémiai Kiadó, Budapest.