"In the Eastern Roman Empire, Latin gradually faded as the Court language over the course of the 6th century (official Latin lost its predominance in official communications from the mid-5th, although all communications at the imperial level of administration in Greek had to be accompanied by a Latin text); it was used in Justinian's (whose native language was Latin), but during the reign of Heraclius in the early 7th century, Greek (which was already widely spoken in the eastern portions of the Roman empire from its inception) was made the official language.