Instead of speaking plain English, Ancient Romans chose to speak Latin. What was their motive?

[Boojatta]

[rug]

1. Etruscan was too hard to pronounce.

[Forkboy]

2. No one had invented Esperanto yet.

[trof]

3. Yeah, and what's the deal with 'Latin' America, anyway?

They don't speak Latin.
Why isn't it Spanish/Portuguese America?
I believe in calling a spade a spade.
:-)

[Ikonoklast]

4. That's total bullshit. They spoke proper English with a British accent.

Every Centurion in every movie I ever watched sounded like he went to Cambridge or Eton, while the members of the cohort all sounded like Cockneys to me.

And the Emperors all sounded like members of the British House of Lords.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

5. English didn't exist yet

The Britons all spoke Celtic languages, except for possibly the Picts (the guys who painted themselves blue).

The Romans didn't want their children to speak Celtic languages, which are way too difficult, so they chose Latin, which had the added benefit of allowing them to understand all those legal phrases.

[HopeHoops]

6. Clearly they were ahead of their time. They were simply setting Monty Python up for endless jokes.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. to fool the Greeks

:shrug:

[wickerwoman]

8. They tried pig latin first but then realised any 8 year old could figure out what they were saying.

[TheCentepedeShoes]

9. So the audience

could understand them when they filmed "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum"

[struggle4progress]

10. Sewing confucian

[Swede]

11. Et tu, Boojatta?

:shrug:

[provis99]

13. sometimes I think Boojatta and RandomThoughts are the same person.

Or at least are smoking the same thing...

[RandomThoughts]

15. Nope, Random Thoughts is postings by Robert Eastwood.

Thats me, And I am my own person.

Robert Eastwood.

[Canuckistanian]

12. Just to piss you off

:D

[trackfan]

14. Quia Anglorum lingua non noscebatur apud Romanos.

Et certe non sicut nos hodie loquamur.

[sarge43]

16. They got their laughs by mimicking Elmer Fudd

That's "WAYnee, WEEdee, WEEkee" to you, Barbarian.

Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum Europae vincendarum

[LeftishBrit]

17. In the words of generations of English schoolchildren...

Latin is a language,
As dead as dead can be.
It killed the Ancient Romans,
And now it's killing me!