12 Facts About Late Latin

Late Latin is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.

Some Late Latin writings are more literary and classical, but others are more inclined to the vernacular.

Also, Late Latin is not identical to Christian patristic Latin, used in the theological writings of the early Christian fathers.

Late Latin formed when large numbers of non-Latin-speaking peoples on the borders of the empire were being subsumed and assimilated, and the rise of Christianity was introducing a heightened divisiveness in Roman society, creating a greater need for a standard language for communicating between different socioeconomic registers and widely separated regions of the sprawling empire.

The term Late Latin Antiquity meaning post-classical and pre-medieval had currency in English well before then.

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Imperial Late Latin went on into English literature; Fowler's History of Roman Literature mentions it in 1903.

Late Latin has already said in the Preface that he rejects the ages scheme used by some: Golden Age, Silver Age, Brass Age, Iron Age.

Late Latin does give some idea of the source of his infima, which is a classical word, "lowest", of which the comparative degree is inferior, "lower".

The Christian writers were not interested in the elegant speech of the best or classical Late Latin, which belonged to their aristocratic pagan opponents.

Low Late Latin passed from the heirs of the Italian renaissance to the new philologists of the northern and Germanic climes, where it became a different concept.

Fourth age of the Late Latin tongue is that of the remainder of the middle age, and the 1st centuries of modern times, during which the language fell by degrees into so great a decadency, that it became nothing better than a barbarous jargon.

Under these times of darkness, we must, therefore, rank that Late Latin, which is called lingua ecclesiastica, and which we cannot read without disgust.