So, I just happened to see this video. It talks about how something HBO's Rome failed to include was that Roman Patricians would be speaking Greek amongst themselves, which most of their servants couldn't understand. So there was a linguistic divide so slaves wouldn't be eavesdropping on their masters, but rather standing around not understanding a word until their masters addressed them in Latin.
I've got some experience of sitting around with most of the people around me speaking languages I don't understand, so I feel I can somewhat relate to the slave's experience on this part. I was wondering if there are any actual accounts or descriptions of how slaves or servants experienced this?
Would the same thing have been true in post-Roman Europe when the elite spoke Latin or French? Are there any records of servants saying what they thought about that?
I suspect there wouldn't be much, as most records of servants come after 19th century governments starting teaching everyone to read and write, and afaik at that point most nobility would be speaking their native tongue at home and not the lingua franca. But hopefully I'm wrong?
EDIT: Just noticed the typo in the title, excusez-moi, I had to rewrite it a couple of times to fit the word limit.
Hi! This came up recently here. As you see from the comments people disagree (but I will assert my opinion - the idea of speaking Greek in private is silly especially because Cicero didn't write to his friends in Greek).
As for the experiences of slaves, I'm afraid they're entirely lost except maybe Plautus, some 100 years before Cicero. I don't know how we can get in contact with that information.
Slaves serving as secretaries, personal assistants or teachers would often be Greek themselves as they were seen as being cultured. Tiro, Cicero's secretary is an example of this.