DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62267#0168
158 CLASSICAL TOUR Dis.
as to elude observation. Gibbon, who might
have been expected to enlarge upon a point so
interesting in itself and so intimately connected
with his subject as the fate of the Latin language,
has only mentioned in general terms and with-
out any allusion to the time, its entire cessation
as a living tongue. For want of better informa-
tion on this point, the following observations may,
perhaps, be acceptable.
The Latin language, stripped indeed of its
elegance, but still grammatical and genuine, sur-
vived the invasion and the expulsion of the Goths,
and continued to be spoken in Rome in the
beginning of the seventh century. That it
was spoken under Theodoric and his suc-
cessors appears evident from their laws, regu-
lations, and letters in Cassiodorus. In one of
these letters, Theodaliatus, then king of Italy,
speaking of the language of Rome, says—“ Homa
tradit eloquium quo suavius nihil auditur*.”
After the long; and destructive war, which ter-
minuted in the expulsion of the Goths, we find
Gregory the Great, in the beginning of the
seventh century, delivering his instructions to his
flock in Latin, and in a style far more fluent and
correct than Cassiodorus, who preceded him by
more than fifty years. It is to be remembered,
Cass. lib. x. ep. 7.
as to elude observation. Gibbon, who might
have been expected to enlarge upon a point so
interesting in itself and so intimately connected
with his subject as the fate of the Latin language,
has only mentioned in general terms and with-
out any allusion to the time, its entire cessation
as a living tongue. For want of better informa-
tion on this point, the following observations may,
perhaps, be acceptable.
The Latin language, stripped indeed of its
elegance, but still grammatical and genuine, sur-
vived the invasion and the expulsion of the Goths,
and continued to be spoken in Rome in the
beginning of the seventh century. That it
was spoken under Theodoric and his suc-
cessors appears evident from their laws, regu-
lations, and letters in Cassiodorus. In one of
these letters, Theodaliatus, then king of Italy,
speaking of the language of Rome, says—“ Homa
tradit eloquium quo suavius nihil auditur*.”
After the long; and destructive war, which ter-
minuted in the expulsion of the Goths, we find
Gregory the Great, in the beginning of the
seventh century, delivering his instructions to his
flock in Latin, and in a style far more fluent and
correct than Cassiodorus, who preceded him by
more than fifty years. It is to be remembered,
Cass. lib. x. ep. 7.