Nyelvpolitika a Római Birodalomban (Language policy in the Roman Empire)

Language policy, language law, language regulation, official language, state language: all terms that we encounter in our modern world. But does it make sense to use these terms in relation to the Roman Empire? Were there language laws and regulations in the Roman Empire? Was there an official language other than Latin in the Empire, which was multilingual and populated by many different peoples? Were there language policies and tools available to the leadership of the Roman Empire? What role did great personalities, especially the emperors of Rome, play in shaping language policy? Can the European Union learn anything from the language policy theory and practice of the Roman Empire? Béla Adamik's book attempts to answer these and similar questions within a very broad timeframe, from the 3rd century BC to the 9th century AD, i.e. within the timeframe of the almost complete existence of the Roman Empire. In the course of this 'time travel', the chapters of the book show how linguistic policy thought developed in the Republican period, how it evolved during the Imperial and Byzantine periods, and, in parallel, describe the history of the most tangible manifestation of Roman language policy, the official language use of the Empire, with particular reference to the evolution of the practice of choosing between Latin and Greek.