The Rhetoric of Bilingualism in Fourth-Century Literature

Abstract: This article examines elite authors’ discourse on Greek-Latin bilingualism and monolingualism in the fourth century ce. Rather than seeking to establish the extent, variety, or scope of linguistic skills of individuals or groups, it examines how such skills were presented and discussed in a variety of literary contexts, from epistolography to epideictic rhetoric to historiography. Although the phenomenon manifests itself a variety of ways, the discussion of bilingualism was frequently deployed to pursue wider rhetorical aims.