What Language Did Cleopatra Speak? (Explained!)

Cleopatra’s native language was Koine Greek, a version of Greek which was spoken throughout the Hellenistic period. She is also supposed to have spoken as many as nine other languages, including Egyptian, Ethiopian, Hebrew, Arabic, Syrian, and others. She was certainly the only Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt to learn the native language.

While a lot of perhaps apocryphal sources claim a great deal about the number of languages Cleopatra could speak, it’s plain that she was adept in a number of different languages.

In any case, she was born to Koine Greek-speaking parents and in that tradition, so this was her day-to-day language.

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What was Cleopatra’s native language?

Though she is thought of as iconic Egyptian queen, the Egyptian language was not Cleopatra’s native tongue.

She lived during the Hellenistic period, long after the old glory of Egypt, when dialects of Greek had spread to most corners of the Mediterranean, and Egypt itself was under Hellenic Greek rule.

Cleopatra’s native language, then, was what is known as Koine Greek.

This was also known as common Attic, Hellenistic, Biblical Greece or Alexandrian dialect. Cleopatra herself was a descendent of Ptolemy I Soter, a close companion of Alexander the Great who was the main instrument in spreading Hellenic Greek all over this region.

Koine Greek included a great many styles—it was used in conservative literary forms but also preserved in the spoken vernaculars of the people.

It was based primarily on Attic and the related speech forms of Ionic.

This was Cleopatra’s native language, the first and most comfortable language she spoke.

However, being a ruler in Egypt, she did in fact learn the Egyptian language later on in life.

She was the only Ptolemaic ruler of Egypt to do so, as all of those before her had simply stuck to Greek.

This is a well-documented historical fact.

How much she would have used Egyptian, or indeed any language other than Greek, on a regular basis is very difficult to say.

Her companions and court would have been almost exclusively Greek speaking, but she would doubtless have had much more freedom of rule being able to converse directly with her Egyptian subjects.

A big question in Cleopatra’s life is just how many languages she could speak.

Let’s look into this question.

How many languages did Cleopatra speak?

According to various historical sources, depending on whom you read, Cleopatra could speak anywhere from two to nine languages.

One of our sources for this is the Roman historian Plutarch, who generally speaking can be considered quite reliable as a historian.

Plutarch implies that Cleopatra could speak Ethiopian, the language used by the Troglodytes, Hebrew, Arabic, Median, Parthian, and the Syrian language.

This was on top of her native Koine Greek and her knowledge of the Egyptian language.

There would certainly have been good historical justification for her knowledge of all these languages.

Many places in Africa which spoke these languages had once been part of the Ptolemaic Kingdom, and Cleopatra wished to restore them to her rule.

Again, being able to speak directly with those from these areas would have been a big help in conquering them.

However, one’s reading of Plutarch must be aware of nuance.

It may be that he was simply asserting that she spoke many languages, and then was listing the many varied peoples who lived in the area around her kingdom.

It’s hard to say how literally we should take this section of his history.

Further, this affinity for so quite so many languages is not attested elsewhere.

It’s widely agreed that she could talk multiple languages, but the only certain were Greek and Egyptian.

Finally, Plutarch was not her contemporary, as she died decades before he was born.

What language did Cleopatra speak to Caesar?

Most, if not all, high ranking Roman officials at Cleopatra’s time would have spoken at least two languages.

Those living in Rome itself would have used Latin as their main and first language, but given the spread of Hellenic Greek throughout the region, they almost universally spoke Greek too.

When Cleopatra famously met Julius Caesar, it is most likely that they spoke Greek to one another.

They both would have been able to comfortably speak Greek, so this was the perfect language for them to share.

Did Cleopatra learn Latin?

It’s a big question about whether Cleopatra could speak Latin.

It’s generally assumed she could since she spent time in Rome and Latin was spoken in Rome at the time.

However, she did not speak Latin as best we can tell.

Greek was far more useful even to most Romans, since it was spoken in so much of the surrounding neighbourhood.

While it’s not impossible that she spoke or at least understood Latin, she would have had no use for it at home.

Even in Rome, Greek, as I’ve said, would have gotten her by just fine, so it’s very unlikely that she had any strong grasp of Latin perhaps beyond being able to read it.

While being able to speak nine languages is by no means an impossible feat, the simple fact is that historian accounts from such ancient periods have to be taken with a pinch of salt.

She certainly was adept at multiple languages, but whether she could really speak nine languages is difficult to say.

In any case, her native language was Koine Greek and not, as many people tend to expect, the Egyptian language.

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Founder - @PollyWebster

Polly Webster is the founder of Foreign Lingo and a seasoned traveler with a decade of exploration under her belt.

Over the past 10 years, she has journeyed to numerous countries around the globe, immersing herself in diverse cultures, traditions, and languages.

Drawing from her rich experiences, Polly now writes insightful articles about travel, languages, traditions, and cultures, sharing her unique perspectives and invaluable tips with her readers.

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