The Life of Tiberius, 71

Suetonius  translated by J. C. Rolfe

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71Though he spoke Greek readily and fluently, yet he would not use it on all occasions, and especially eschewed it in the senate; so much so that before using the word “monopolium,” he begged pardon for the necessity of employing a foreign term. Again, when the word ἔμβλημα was read in a decree of the senate, he recommended that it be changed and a native word substituted for the foreign one; and if one could not be found, that the idea be expressed by several words, if necessary, and by periphrasis. On another occasion, when a soldier was asked in Greek to give testimony, he forbade him to answer except in Latin.

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