Latin is a member of the broad family of Italic languages. Its alphabet the Latin alphabet emerged from the Old Italic alphabets which in turn were derived from the Greek and Phoenician scripts. Historical Latin came from the prehistoric language of the Latium region specifically around the River Tiber where Roman civilization first developed. How and when Latin came to be spoken by the Romans are questions that have long been debated. Various influences on Latin of Celtic dialects in northern Italy the non-Indo-European Etruscan language in Central Italy and the Greek of southern Italy have been detected but when these influences entered the native Latin is not known for certain.

Surviving Latin literature consists almost entirely of Classical Latin in its broadest definition. It includes a polished and sometimes highly stylized literary language sometimes termed Golden Latin which spans the 1st century BC and the early years of the 1st century AD. However throughout the history of ancient Rome the spoken language differed in both grammar and vocabulary from that of literature and is referred to as Vulgar Latin. In addition to Latin the Greek language was often spoken by the well-educated elite who studied it in school and acquired Greek tutors from among the influx of enslaved educated Greek prisoners of war captured during the Roman conquest of Greece. In the eastern half of the Roman Empire which became the Byzantine Empire the Greek Koine of Hellenism remained current and was never replaced by Latin. It continued to influence the Vulgar Latin that evolved into the Eastern Romance languages.