Jerusalem during the first century was a place where such a lingua franca would’ve been necessary. This is evident from the fact that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Judaea at the time of Jesus, decided that the sign he had attached to the cross on which Jesus was executed (and that read “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”) should be written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. This, so that the many people passing by the site of the crucifixion, as it was near to the city, would be able to read the sign, and find it intelligible.