A history of the English Language

33.
The Latin Language in Britain.
Among the other evidences of Romanization must be included the use of the Latin 
language. A great number of inscriptions have been found, all of them in Latin. The 
majority of these proceed no doubt from the military and official class and, being in the 
nature of public records, were therefore in the official language. They do not in them-
selves indicate a widespread use of Latin by the native population. Latin did not replace 
the Celtic language in Britain as it did in Gaul. Its use by native Britons was probably 
confined to members of the upper classes and some inhabitants of the cities and towns. 
Occasional graffiti scratched on a tile or a piece of pottery, apparently by the worker who 
made it, suggest that in some localities Latin was familiar to the artisan class. Outside the 
cities there were many fine country houses, some of which were probably occupied by 
the well-to-do. The occupants of these also probably spoke Latin. Tacitus tells us that in 
the time of Agricola the Britons, who had hitherto shown only hostility to the language of 
their conquerors, now became eager to speak it. At about the same time, a Greek teacher 
from Asia Minor was teaching in Britain, and by A.D. 96 the poet Martial was able to 
boast, possibly with some exaggeration, that his works were read even in this far-off 
island. On the whole, there were certainly many people in Roman Britain who habitually 
spoke Latin or upon occasion could use it. But its use was not sufficiently widespread to 
cause it to survive, as the Celtic language survived, the upheaval of the Germanic 
invasions. Its use probably began to decline after 410, the approximate date at which the 
last of the Roman legions were officially withdrawn from the island. The few traces that 
it has left in the language of the Germanic invaders and that can still be seen in the 
English language today will occupy us later.