Life of a roman Soldier

[bobbin]

Very interesting. That letter is in Greek. So egyptians during the reign of Trajan still spoke Greek. Either that or the soldier was illiterate and hired someone to write the letter and he wrote it in Greek because I guess it would be easier to find someone who could translate greek in the Eastern empire. Of course the fathers name is Greek so it could just have been a family who descended from the original Klerouchoi of the Ptolemies, which is my guess.

Most would not speak coptic, the native egyptian language, only the upper classes would speak greek.

Like you said, the soldier in particular was most likely a decendant of Klerouchoi (the letter was found in the Fayyum, a major settlement area for the Klerouchoi) or hellenised egyptian (Apion is an egyptian name).