Bilinguisme et traduction dans le monde antique tardif

Bilingualism and Translation in the Late Roman World

Greek Latin bilingualism is a feature characteristic of the Roman Republic and Empire until a significant upheaval occurs at the end of the Empire which leads to the progressive forgetting of Greek in the West. While the eastern part of the Empire remains Greek-speaking and is little influenced by Latin, the Western world goes from a bilingual world to a monolingual Latin-speaking environment. This article aims to provide, from a diachronic point of view, an overview about this slow evolution, which will lead to the complete disappearance of Greek in the West and the need to translate many pagan and Christian Greek texts into Latin.