Ancient Emigration

[Tom]

I just wanted to interject with a random comment.

Yesssssss, my ancestors were so awesome! Even though they liked killing people.

 

[skip.knox]

Here's another one: hit men.

Well, sort of. I'm reading a biography of John Calvin. While he was at Basle, along with many other reformers who fled France after 1534, the refugees had to be careful when leaving the city. Once outside the walls there were hired men waiting. Hired by King Francis I to hunt down said refugees and bring them back, dead or alive.

I can only imagine what it would have been like as a rural innkeeper to have a few of those yahoos staying in my place!

 

[Russ]

The idea of a "country" did not exist for the vast majority of the period you are discussing. Travel documents were not needed.

The kind of documents people might use while travelling in that period were more like "Letters of Introduction" to help them get co-operation from people in the areas they were travelling to. In the Roman empire they might well carry documents to prove they were citizens of the Empire so they could get their full legal rights wherever they went. Would need to double check that though.

Except during times of plague or war travellers were generally very welcome because they brought stories, news, wealth or wares with them. Many cultures during that period had pretty generous rules about offering hospitality to strangers.

Despite all that the vast majority of people in that period would likely be born, work and die without travelling more than 20 miles from their home.

If it is not the real world you are dealing with you have plenty of room to do what helps your plot or characters develop the way you would like.

 

[Laurence]

I wonder, would the people which travelled between nations often have known many languages or did many clusters of countries have common languages?

 

[2WayParadox]

i'd say no, nobles might know a standard language (think french or english in europe), but for regular people, i think local dialects were the norm

 

[CupofJoe]

i'd say no, nobles might know a standard language (think french or english in europe), but for regular people, i think local dialects were the norm

I would add Latin to the mix within Europe... It was the language of the Church, at least in the Catholic/Western end of Europe - I guess some form of Greek would be the the same for the Orthodox Church at the Eastern End.
[English was a niche language until fairly recently [even some Kings of England didn't speak it...]
I would guess that there was a common-ish trading language around the Med - maybe Latin or Greek [and Arabic [or it precursors?]] as possibilities. Sailors/Traders/Pirates could probably get by in dozen ports/languages...

 

[2WayParadox]

sailors and the like could get around because each trading state established a kind of base/trading post in the ports they trade with, thus overcoming any language issues.

 

[Laurence]

Almost like embassies?

This is really interesting, will research tonight. I'm going to make my story focus heavily on the relationships between countries so language will be a large part of it.

 

[2WayParadox]

similar to that, but it doesn't have to be a government initiative. Large trade companies or trade families did this to have someone trusted and connected in places they wanted to trade with. It's very possible that some amount of cash or political favor was needed to establish this kind of foothold, it might even be forbidden for traders from state X

 

[Russ]

Language is a great subject and can be a lot of fun in a book. Europe at various periods has almost always had a lingua franca (Greek, Latin, French, English) that was used for common communication between groups. Sometimes it would also vary by the purpose of the communication, for example academics in different countries might write to each other in Latin, while nobles would gossip across borders in French.

Also don't forget that there are huge variations within a language as you travel. For instance my mother is from Austria and her Great Aunt was born and raised in Prussia. They find it much easier to speak to each other in English due to the fact that their versions of German as so different they can barely understand each other in their native tongue.