The discovery of inscriptions in Greek letters (particularly Koine Greek) across various regions of the ancient Balkans and eastern Mediterranean does not, by itself, constitute evidence that those areas were ethnically Greek or inhabited exclusively—or even predominantly—by Greeks. Rather, the Greek alphabet and Koine dialect functioned primarily as a practical lingua franca for administration, commerce, religion, and elite communication across diverse linguistic communities following the Hellenistic expansion and under Roman rule.

Koine Greek emerged as a standardized, supra-regional form of Greek after the conquests of Alexander the Great. It served as the common written and administrative medium across the eastern Mediterranean, much like Aramaic in earlier periods or Latin in the West. Local elites, merchants, and religious authorities adopted it for public inscriptions, dedications, and official documents regardless of their vernacular speech. This phenomenon is well-documented in epigraphic studies: Greek script appears in areas with Illyrian, Thracian, Macedonian, and other Paleo-Balkan populations precisely because it was the prestige and practical written language of the time.

Spoken Vernaculars vs. Written Koine

Ancient languages such as Illyrian and the Pelasgian substrate were almost certainly spoken “heart-languages”—vernaculars used in daily life, family, and local tradition—but rarely, if ever, committed to writing in surviving public monuments. Illyrian, an Indo-European language (or group of languages), is known almost exclusively through onomastics (personal and place names), glosses in ancient authors, and a handful of potential loanwords.

No substantial native Illyrian inscriptions survive; where writing occurs in Illyrian territories, it typically employs the Greek or later Latin alphabet. This doesnt mean that the Illyrians or Pelasgians did not leave a legacy behind, and it means that those ancient people were not Greeks.

Similarly, ancient traditions describe Pelasgians as pre-Hellenic inhabitants of parts of Greece and the Aegean whose language was perceived as “barbarian” (non-Greek) by some classical authors, including Herodotus. Place names and certain lexical elements in Greek with non-Indo-European or pre-Greek features are often attributed to such substrate populations. These groups likely maintained spoken languages that were gradually overlaid or replaced by Greek dialects among elites, while Greek script became the vehicle for monumental and religious expression.

The reliance on Greek letters for inscriptions thus reflects functional bilingualism or diglossia: a local spoken language alongside an acquired written koine, not the replacement of one people by another.

The Limits of Script-Based Claims

It is a relatively weak and reductive argument, sometimes advanced in nationalist historiography, to claim territories or populations as “Greek” solely on the basis of Greek-letter inscriptions. Such reasoning overlooks the well-established role of scripts as neutral technologies of power and culture.

Greek script, like the Latin alphabet today, was adopted by non-native speakers for its utility and prestige. Insisting otherwise flattens the complex ethnic and linguistic mosaic of the ancient Hellenic world, which was never homogeneous. Classical and Hellenistic Greece and its peripheries included Illyrians, Dardanians, Pelasgians, Thracians, Macedonians, Phrygians, Anatolian groups, and others who interacted, intermarried, and influenced one another.

Moreover, the Greek alphabet and language of antiquity differ significantly from modern Greek in phonology, grammar, vocabulary, and orthography. Koine Greek itself represents a later, simplified form far removed from Homeric or Classical Attic. Projecting modern Greek national identity backward onto these ancient inscriptions ignores these linguistic shifts and the historical distance involved.

Ancient Diversity and Modern National Identity

The ancient “Hellenic” world was a cultural and linguistic sphere inhabited by many groups, not a single ethno-national entity in the modern sense. Hellenic identity coexisted with other non-Greek and pre-Greek groups.

By contrast, modern Greek national identity emerged in the late 18th and early 19th centuries through a complex process involving the transformation of the Ottoman Rum millet—a broad religious category encompassing Orthodox Christians of various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds—into a secular “Hellenic” nation-state. Western European Philhellenism, drawing romantic inspiration from classical antiquity, and local Enlightenment intellectuals played key roles in this reconstruction.

This transition involved synthesizing diverse heritages (ancient, Byzantine, regional) into a continuous national narrative. While there are undeniable threads of linguistic and cultural continuity, the modern nation is a product of 19th-century nation-building, not a direct ethnic successor to any singular ancient “Greek” people. Over-reliance on Greek script as proof of exclusive Greek presence risks anachronistic projection of contemporary identities onto a far more plural ancient landscape.

In sum, epigraphic evidence in Greek letters reveals networks of cultural and administrative influence, not straightforward ethnic ownership. Serious historical analysis must distinguish between the language of monuments and the spoken realities of ancient populations, recognizing the layered, multi-ethnic nature of the Balkans across millennia.

References

Kitromilides, Paschalis M. Enlightenment and Revolution: The Making of Modern Greece. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2013. (Related to identity transformation; see also his earlier essay “From Rum Millet to Greek Nation”).

Roudometof, Victor. “From Rum Millet to Greek Nation: Enlightenment, Secularization, and National Identity in Ottoman Balkan Society, 1453–1821.” Modern Greek Studies Yearbook 14 (1998): 1–xx.

Horrocks, Geoffrey. Greek: A History of the Language and its Speakers. 2nd ed. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010. (On Koine as lingua franca).

Brixhe, Claude. “Linguistic Diversity in Asia Minor during the Empire: Koine and Non-Greek Languages.” In A Companion to the Ancient Greek Language, edited by Egbert J. Bakker. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010.

For Illyrian and Paleo-Balkan languages: see standard references such as Wilkes, John. The Illyrians. Oxford: Blackwell, 1992; and discussions in epigraphic corpora from the region.