Would there have been any way for Greek to overtake Latin as the most widely spoken language in the Roman West in addition to the East?
You have to somehow make the western clergy use Greek for the liturgy instead of Latin. Since the churchmen mostly knew Latin, it became the scholarship language and one they could use to communicate with each other and that is a very practical use that is hard to overcome. Even if the Bishops of Rome speak Latin and Greek, they are still going to use Latin with the churchmen in Gaul and Spain and Britain so unless you spread it north I'm not sure how you could do it.
MNPundit said:You have to somehow make the western clergy use Greek for the liturgy instead of Latin.
Hmm what about if during the time when the plebs are really being ground down (early third century BC) they get help from some enterprising Greeks? That might spread Greek culture to the plebs and use it against the Romans. In OTL it appears the Punic Wars domestically served as a way to keep the plebes from demanding more rights. So if the Greeks help the plebs in populist kind of setting and there's no external enemy to unify them behind the Roman elites...I was wondering if it could be done earlier, before Christianity spread throughout the empire. Perhaps when the Romans adopted Greek culture they also took on the language and became more thoroughly Hellenized, though of course butterflies might confine the Republic to the Italian peninsula.
There were prominent Greek trading cities in what is now eastern Spain before the Roman conquest of Iberia.
Hmm what about if during the time when the plebs are really being ground down (early third century BC) they get help from some enterprising Greeks? That might spread Greek culture to the plebs and use it against the Romans. In OTL it appears the Punic Wars domestically served as a way to keep the plebes from demanding more rights. So if the Greeks help the plebs in populist kind of setting and there's no external enemy to unify them behind the Roman elites...