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"Until the first third of the 19th century, many learned elites still opted for Latin. (The German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss kept his scholarly noteboo
by dghf 12y ago
"Until the first third of the 19th century, many learned elites still opted for Latin. (The German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss kept his scholarly notebooks, at least through the 1810s, in the same language Julius Caesar used for his.)"
Wasn't Caesar's preferred language Greek?
- ashark 12y agoHe wrote his accounts of his wars in Latin, at least. Marcus Aurelius wrote his Meditations in Greek. I can't think of any other major Roman figures who are known for writing in anything other than Latin. Plutarch did, but he was Greek so I don't think he counts.
- philwelch 12y agoMarcus Aurelius wrote in Greek because Greek was the standard language of philosophy, even well into the days of the Roman Empire.
- dghf 12y agoThe Meditations were Marcus Aurelius's private jottings, so parallel to the "scholarly notebooks" of Caesar that the article refers to: De bello gallica &c. were for public consumption. I can't provide a source, but I was under the distinct impression that the Roman patrician class spoke Greek among themselves in private: Latin was for formal, public and ceremonial use. Suetonius says that Caesar's last words were in Greek (rather than the "Et tu, Brute?" that Shakespeare gives).