In the Roman Empire many languages were written and spoken, but the two main ones where Latin and Greek. Some people could speak both, but they might not be as fluent in each. Examples from Rhodos and Heraclea Pontica are strange because they use the genitive (instead of the usual dative) to name the honorand. This is possibly because the Greek stonecutters were unsure about the Latin. A very awkward specimen of this kind is the inscription from Sagalassus on this image, where the stonecutter was unsure about Julian’s imperial name, and he mixes Greek and Latin letters even within one word.
