According to the 1st century C.E. Roman historian Suetonius, Julius Caesar spoke mainly Greek and not Latin, as was the case with most patricians at the time.
GOLDSWORTHY: We know that Cleopatra's first language is Greek. And any Roman like Caesar or Mark Antony - an educated, aristocratic Roman of that day and age - grows up to be fluently bilingual. Now, Cleopatra spoke in... MICHAEL: In Greek and Latin.
Latin was the original language of the Romans and remained the language of imperial administration, legislation, and the military throughout the classical period.
The historical Jesus probably did not speak Latin. The lingua franca through much of the eastern Roman world was Greek, and he could have picked up a few words of that Mediterranean tongue from traders plying its caravan routes.
Latin was used throughout the Roman Empire, but it shared space with a host of other languages and dialects, including Greek, Oscan and Etruscan, which give us a unique perspective on the ancient world.
Originally spoken by small groups of people living along the lower Tiber River, Latin spread with the increase of Roman political power, first throughout Italy and then throughout most of western and southern Europe and the central and western Mediterranean coastal regions of Africa.
Another Shakespearean invention was Caesar's last words, "Et tu, Brute?," meaning "You too, Brutus?" in Latin.
Many members of the Senate, a group of appointed (not elected) political leaders, resented Caesar's popularity and arrogance. After Caesar attained the status of dictator for life in 44 B.C.E., these officials decided to strike the ultimate blow against his power.
Gaius Julius Caesar spoke two languages, Latin and Greek. While Latin might be considered his native language, he would have mainly spoke Greek as was common with patricians at the time.
1. Veni, vidi, vici. I came, I saw, I conquered. Famously attributed to Julius Caesar in a message he supposedly sent to the Roman Senate to describe his swift, conclusive victory against King Pharnaces II of Pontus near Zela in 47 BC.
One is that Cleopatra was the only ruler of her dynasty who knew, in addition to her native Greek, the Egyptian language.
Cleopatra was not Egyptian.
While Cleopatra was born in Egypt, she traced her family origins to Macedonian Greece and Ptolemy I Soter, one of Alexander the Great's generals.
"It was by this device of Cleopatra's, it is said, that Caesar was first captivated, for she showed herself to be a bold coquette" (Life of Julius Caesar, XLIX. 3). And it was there that the young Ptolemy XIII found them early the next morning, aghast that Caesar already had been seduced by his half-sister.
Shakespeare's play The Tragedy of Julius Caesar depicts Caesar's last words as "Et tu, Brute?," which translates to "You too, Brutus?" Shakespeare used this line based on the book Twelve Caesars written by Suetonius over 150 years after Caesar has been assassinated.
These words are spoken by Caesar when Brutus along with other conspirators stabs Caesar. Caesar was stabbed in the Senate House and Brutus too stabs him. Caesar had not expected Brutus to behave in such a treacherous manner. As he tries to defend himself, with his broken heart, he says 'Et tu Brute'.
What is the first language? Sumerian can be considered the first language in the world, according to Mondly. The oldest proof of written Sumerian was found on the Kish tablet in today's Iraq, dating back to approximately 3500 BC.
1. Tamil (5000 years old) - Oldest Living Language of the World. Source Spoken by 78 million people and official language in Sri Lanka and Singapore, Tamil is the oldest language in the world. It is the only ancient language that has survived all the way to the modern world.
Although Latin was once the universal academic language in Europe, academics no longer use it for writing papers or daily discourse. Furthermore, the Roman Catholic Church, as part of the Vatican II reforms in the 1960s, modernized its religious liturgies to allow less use of Latin and more use of vernacular languages.
The Latin speaking community is small, but growing. According to our own estimates, there are around 2,000 people around the globe who can speak fluently, and many thousands more who are learning to do so. In recent years we have been observing a new trend towards spoken Latin.
But Latin and Greek were common at the time of Jesus. It's unlikely Jesus would have known Latin beyond a few words, says Jonathan Katz, stipendiary lecturer in Classics at Oxford University. It was the language of law and the Roman military and Jesus was unlikely to be familiar with the vocabulary of these worlds.
Is Latin closer to Italian or Spanish? - Italian is the closest national language to Latin, followed by Spanish, Romanian, Portuguese, and the most divergent being French.