koine greek was the most common language in the eastern mediterranean during the height of the roman empire.
the most common language in the eastern mediterranean during the height of the roman empire was?
koine greek
koine greek had become the common language of the eastern mediterranean and into asia minor after the conquests of alexander the great. lucian even imagines that greek is the universal language of the dead in the underworld. in late antiquity, a greek-speaking majority lived in the greek peninsula and islands, major cities of the east, western anatolia, and some coastal areas. greek continued as the language of the eastern roman empire, and developed into a distinctive medieval greek that gave rise to modern greek.
languages of the roman empire
the geopolitical divisions in europe that created a concept of "east" and "west" originated in the ancient tyrannical and imperialistic graeco-roman times. the eastern mediterranean was home to the highly urbanized cultures that had greek as their common language (owing to the older empire of alexander the great and of the hellenistic successors.), whereas the west was much more rural in its character and more readily adopted latin as its common language. after the fall of the western roman empire and the beginning of the medieval times (or "middle ages"), western and central europe were substantially cut off from the east where "byzantine" greek culture and eastern christianity became founding influences in the eastern european world such as the eastern and southern slavic peoples.
western world