>The Eastern provinces yes - including places now considered "middle eastern", which back when the Roman conquest happened were run by the Ptolemys and other ha

>The Eastern provinces yes - including places now considered "middle eastern", which back when the Roman conquest happened were run by the Ptolemys and other hairs of Alexander. I'm not sure what your point is? The eastern provinces were part of Rome. >The emperors however, when Byzantium was established did not, as they came from latin speaking Roman elites (it was after all the eastern part created from the split of the Roman empire into two organizational units). It took a few centuries for the eastern emperors to speak Greek (and basically rise from the local elements). Emperor Julian may have spoken Greek as his first language and he was emperor during the 300s. Regardless, a large number of emperors knew Greek to varying degrees. Many of the Roman elites (in the West) knew Greek.