Latin in Egyptian Documents between Caracalla and Diocletian

Abstract

The third century A.D. is known to be a major historical watershed, including Caracalla's Constitutio Antoniniana (A.D. 212), which extended Roman citizenship to almost all the inhabitants of the Empire, and Diocletian's reforms (A.D. 285-305), which inaugurated Late Antiquity. An overview of Latin and bilingual documentary texts on papyrus, ostraka, and tablets produced in Egypt in this century, and a comparison with evidence from the previous and following ones, will lead to some considerations on the spread and significance of the Latin language in this province.