In the summer of AD 70, as the Roman siege of Jerusalem entered its final phase, the rebel leaders requested a parley with their conqueror, the future emperor Titus. “Titus ordered his soldiers to keep control of their temper and their missiles,” writes Josephus, “and stationed an interpreter beside him” (Jewish War 6.327). As advisor to the Roman high command, Josephus had previously been sent “to address (the rebels) in their native tongue” (5.361), and only days earlier, he himself had performed the task of interpreter when “he proclaimed Caesar’s message in Hebrew” (6.97) to the Jewish multitude. (He may have meant Aramaic.) Of course, it was all in vain.
It is interesting, however, to see a Roman general making the effort to engage with the enemy in their native language. Over the centuries of Roman rule, there must have been countless embassies from foreign powers, parlays with foreign neighbours, and negotiations with potential foreign allies, all requiring the services of an interpreter, but we seldom hear the details.
Pliny the Younger alludes to the challenges faced by each emperor and each ambassador when he commended Trajan on continuing to receive petitions while on campaign:
What a splendid sight, the green turf piled up to form the consul’s platform, surrounded not only with the fasces but with pila and signa conferring honour. The diverse garb and dissonant voices of the petitioners enhancing the glory of the– Pliny, 56.6-7
