[SPQR]開坑講下羅馬帝國衰亡史

唔怪得Antoninus Pius既中文wiki少得咁可憐

呢個時期嘅羅馬睇落好似而家北歐咁，享受和平嘅時間太耐，開始冇乜抵抗能力對抗入侵者

呢個時期嘅羅馬睇落好似而家北歐咁，享受和平嘅時間太耐，開始冇乜抵抗能力對抗入侵者

宜家成個歐洲都一樣

現代法軍算西歐最打得
有核航母有SSBN基本上一個大國應該有既軍備佢都有

呢個時期嘅羅馬睇落好似而家北歐咁，享受和平嘅時間太耐，開始冇乜抵抗能力對抗入侵者

宜家成個歐洲都一樣

現代法軍算西歐最打得
有核航母有SSBN基本上一個大國應該有既軍備佢都有

The monstrous vices of the son have cast a shade on the purity of the father's virtues. It has been objected to Marcus, that he sacrificed the happiness of millions to a fond partiality for a worthless boy, and that he chose a successor in his own family, rather than in the republic. Nothing, however, was neglected by the anxious father, and by the men of virtue and learning whom he summoned to his assistance, to expand the narrow mind of young Commodus, to correct his growing vices, and to render him worthy of the throne, for which he was designed. But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous. The distasteful lesson of a grave philosopher was in a moment obliterated by the whispers of a profligate favourite, and Marcus himself blasted the fruits of this laboured education, by admitting his son, at the age of fourteen or fifteen, to a full participation of the Imperial power. He lived but four years afterwards; but he lived long enough to repent a rash measure, which raised the impetuous youth above the restraint of reason and authority.

兒子的令人髮指的罪惡行徑在父親的純貞善良的品德上蒙上了一片陰影。一直有人指責馬爾庫斯，不應該為了偏愛一個一錢不值的孩子而犧牲千百萬人的幸福，不該不在全共和國，而在他自己家裡選定一個繼承人。不過，凡此種種，焦急的父親也全都瞭解，他曾找到許多最有學問、品德優良的人來幫助他，開闊年輕的康茂德的胸懷，糾正他的日益發展的惡習，使他能不致愧對他即將繼承的皇位。但教導的力量一般是很少真能發揮作用的，只除了對一些生性正派的人，但對那些人這類教訓又幾乎是多餘的了。一位嚴肅的哲學家的一篇不合口味的訓詞，一個浪蕩公子哥們兒只需輕輕咕噥幾句，不用一分鐘便會全給抹去；而瑪律庫斯在他剛剛14或15歲時便讓他完全參與皇家政權的管理工作，實際是自己把那辛辛苦苦取得的一點教育成果又全給粉碎了。這之後他只不過又活了四個年頭；但那已完全足夠使他悔恨自己不該一時冒失，把那個魯莽的青年推向不論是理智還是權威都無法加以約束的地位。

Yet Commodus was not, as he has been represented, a tiger born with an insatiate thirst of human blood, and capable, from his infancy, of the most inhuman actions. Nature had formed him of a weak, rather than a wicked, disposition. His simplicity and timidity rendered him the slave of his attendants, who gradually corrupted his mind. His cruelty, which at first obeyed the dictates of others, degenerated into habit, and at length became the ruling passion of his soul.

然而，康茂德也並不像人們所描述的那樣，是一頭生來喝不夠人血的老虎，從兒童時候起就能幹出最不人道的行徑。自然所賦予他的實際是一種怯懦而並非罪惡的天性。他頭腦簡單、生性怯懦，使他很容易成了侍候他的人的奴隸，他們也便極力使他日趨敗壞。他原來因聽命於人而形成的殘暴，逐漸變成了習慣，最後更成為他的主要性格特徵了。

The menace prevented the deed; the assassin was seized by the guards, and immediately revealed the authors of the conspiracy. It had been formed, not in the state, but within the walls of the palace. Lucilla, the emperor's sister, and widow of Lucius Verus, impatient of the second rank, and jealous of the reigning empress, had armed the murderer against her brother's life. she had not ventured to communicate the black design to her second husband Claudius Pompeianus, a senator of distinguished merit and unshaken loyalty; but among the crowd of her lovers (for she imitated the manners of Faustina), she found men of desperate fortunes and wild ambition, who were prepared to serve her more violent as well as her tender passions. The conspirators experienced the rigour of justice, and the abandoned princess was punished, first with exile, and afterwards with death.

刺客被禁衛軍抓住，並立即供出了主謀的名字。禍端並非發自國人，
而是起于宮牆之內。皇帝的姐姐，妒嫉皇后的統治地位，不甘於充當二等角色，把武器交給刺客讓他去刺殺她的弟弟。她的第二個丈夫克勞狄烏斯•龐貝是一位才華出眾、忠貞不二的元老，她並沒有讓他預聞其事；但在她的一大群姦夫中（因為她完全模仿福斯丁娜的行徑）她發現有一些具有野心的亡命之徒，除供獻蜜意柔情之外，還願在更粗暴的行動方面為她效勞。這一幫謀反份子受到了法律的嚴厲制裁，那位惡毒的公主先被流放，後又被處以死刑。


But the words of the assassin sunk deep into the mind of Commodus, and left an indelible impression of fear and hatred against the whole body of the senate. Those whom he had dreaded as importunate ministers, he now suspected as secret enemies. The Delators, a race of men discouraged, and almost extinguished, under the former reigns, again became formidable, as soon as they discovered that the emperor was desirous of finding disaffection and treason in the senate. That assembly, whom Marcus had ever considered as the great council of the nation, was composed of the most distinguished of the Romans and distinction of every kind soon became criminal. The possession of wealth stimulated the diligence of the informers; rigid virtue implied a tacit censure of the irregularities of Commodus; important services implied a dangerous superiority of merit; and the friendship of the father always insured the aversion of the son. Suspicion was equivalent to proof; trial to condemnation. The execution of a considerable senator was attended with the death of all who might lament or revenge his fate; and when Commodus had once tasted human blood, he became incapable of pity or remorse.

但刺殺這個字眼卻從此深深印入康茂德的頭腦之中，並留下了對整個人類恐懼和仇恨的不可磨滅的印記。那些原來因常常堅持己見使他心懷畏懼的大臣，現在他都懷疑他們全是暗藏的敵人。在過去的幾位皇帝的統治下其道不行因而已接近消滅的告密人，現在看到新皇帝一心要在元老院中尋找不滿和反叛情緒，立即又大肆猖獗起來。原來馬庫斯一直把元老院看作是國家最重要的一個諮詢機構，完全是由最有成就的羅馬人組成；而現在在任何方面的出色表現卻都成了罪名。佔有大量財富更會刺激告密人的口味；堅持廉潔奉公實際暗含著對康茂德的不端行為的無言的斥責；重大貢獻則表明一種帶有危險性的超人才能；另外，父親的友情便必然招致兒子的仇恨。可疑就等於鐵證；審訊等於判決。一位重要的元老被處決，許多可能為他的不幸憂傷或懷著復仇心理的人也必須同時處死；而在康茂德一旦嘗到人的血腥味之後，他的同情和悔恨之心便完全死去了。

But every sentiment of virtue and humanity was extinct in the mind of Commodus. Whilst he thus abandoned the reins of empire to these unworthy favourites, he valued nothing in sovereign power, except the unbounded licence of indulging his sensual appetites.

但是，在康茂德的頭腦中一切善良和人道的情緒都已消滅盡淨了。在他把帝國的煩瑣的治理事務全交給那些一文不值的寵臣的時候，他珍視統治權的唯一原因是他能靠它無盡無休地發揮他的淫蕩的性欲。

His hours were spent in a seraglio of three hundred beautiful women, and as many boys, of every rank, and of every province; and, wherever the arts of seduction proved ineffectual, the brutal lover had recourse to violence. The ancient historians have expatiated on these abandoned scenes of prostitution, which scorned every restraint of nature or modesty; but it would not be easy to translate their too faithful descriptions into the decency of modern language.

他的時間全花費在一個養著來自各個地方、各種身份的三百個美女和三百個男孩的後宮中；其中任何一個人如果誘姦無效，這位殘暴的淫棍便立即武力解決。關於這種超出人性或人格所許可的範圍，不顧一切任意亂交的情景，古代歷史學家曾有許多詳細記載；但是我們實在難以將那些如實的描寫翻譯成可以入目的現代語言。

The intervals of lust were filled up His ignorance and low sports. with the basest amusements. The influence of a polite age, and the labour of an attentive education, had never been able to infuse into his rude and brutish mind the least tincture of learning; and he was the first of the Roman emperors totally devoid of taste for the pleasures of the understanding. Nero himself excelled, or affected to excel, in the elegant arts of music and poetry; nor should we despise his pursuits had he not converted the pleasing relaxation of a leisure hour into the serious business and ambition of his life.

在發洩情欲之外的閒置時間，則進行一些最下流的娛樂活動。一個文明時代的影響和煞費苦心的辛勤的教育，在他的粗野、殘暴的頭腦中沒有留下絲毫希望求知的印記；他可說是羅馬皇帝中對求知絲毫不感興趣的第一人。連尼祿也在音樂和詩歌這類高雅的藝術中頗有造詣，或至少像是那麼回事；如果他不曾把他的輕快的消閒時間變成為關係到他的生活和野心的嚴肅事務，那我們對他的追求也不會過於苛求的。

But Commodus, from his earliest infancy, discovered an aversion to whatever was rational or liberal, and a fond attachment to the amusements of the populace; the sports of the circus and amphitheatre, the combats of gladiators, and the hunting of wild beasts. The masters in every branch of learning, whom Marcus provided for his son, were heard with inattention and disgust; whilst the Moors and Parthians, who taught him to dart the javelin and to shoot with the bow, found a disciple who delighted in his application, and soon equalled the most skilful of his instructors, in the steadiness of the eye, and the dexterity of the hand.

但是康茂德從他還是一個很小的孩子時候起，便表現出一種對一切理性的或高雅的東西無不厭惡的情緒，而對一般俗人的愛好——馬戲或運動會、鬥劍以
及捕獵野獸他卻無比喜愛。瑪律庫斯為他的兒子找來的各門學科的大師對他講的一切，他完全無心去聽並十分厭惡；而一些摩爾人或帕提亞人教他擲標槍、射箭，他卻十分高興學習，而且很快就能在眼神的穩定，手臂的靈巧方面和技術最高的教師不相上下。

The servile crowd, whose fortune depended on their master's vices, applauded these ignoble pursuits. The perfidious voice of flattery reminded him that by exploits of the same nature, by the defeat of the Nemaen lion and the slaughter of the wild boar of Erymanthus, the Grecian Hercules had acquired a place among the gods, and an immortal memory among men.

這群追隨著他的奴僕，他們的發跡本必須以主子的墮落為重要依靠，自然對他這種不求上進的行為百般叫好。一些別有用心的諂媚的言詞倒使他想到希臘的赫耳枯勒斯正就是依靠一些這類性質的赫赫功績，打敗勒梅安的雄獅、殺死埃裡曼托斯的野熊，才獲得了神的位置，並在人的記憶中成為不朽的英雄的。

They only forgot to observe, that, in the first ages of society, when the fiercer animals often dispute with man the possession of an unsettled country, a successful war against those savages is one of the most innocent and beneficial labours of heroism. In the civilised state of the Roman empire, the wild beasts had long since retired from the face of man, and the neighbourhood of populous cities. To surprise them in their solitary haunts, and to transport them to Rome, that they might be slain in pomp by the hand of an emperor, was an enterprise equally ridiculous for the prince, and oppressive for the people.

他們只是不曾說明，在人類社會形成的初期，兇猛的野獸常常和人爭奪
荒野的土地，一次擊敗這些野生動物的戰鬥完全是一種無罪的對人類大有裨益的英勇行為。在羅馬帝國這個文明國家中，野獸早已不在人前活動，遠離開了人口集中的城市。現在再跑到他們的棲息地驚擾它們並把它們搬運到羅馬來，讓皇帝在眾目睽睽之下親手將它們殺死，這事對皇帝來說十分荒謬可笑，對老百姓來說也只會感到是一種威脅和壓逼。

Ignorant of these distinctions, Commodus eagerly embraced the glorious resemblance, and styled himself (as we still read on his medals ) the Roman Hercules. The club and the lion's hide were placed by the side of the throne, amongst the ensigns of sovereignty; and statues were erected, in which Commodus was represented in the character, and with the attributes, of the god, whose valour and dexterity he endeavoured to emulate in the daily course of his ferocious amusements.

康茂德完全不瞭解其間的差異，一心只想到以赫耳枯勒斯作為光輝的榜
樣，並自稱為（我們現在在他的勳章上還能看到）羅馬的赫耳枯勒斯。在皇家的徽章上還可以看到在皇座邊放著棍棒和獅子的圖案；康茂德的塑像在許多地方豎立起來，全都把他塑成，在他每日進行的殘暴的娛樂活動中，他一心想要在勇武和靈巧方面與之媲美的那位神靈的形貌。

Elated with these praises, which gradually extinguished the innate sense of shame, Commodus resolved to exhibit, before the eyes of the Roman people, those exercises, which till then he had decently confined within the walls of his palace, and to the presence of a few favourites.

在這種逐漸使他天生的一點羞恥之心喪失殆盡的頌揚聲的刺激之下，康茂德決定要在羅馬人面前表演那迄今為止還只限於在皇宮之內對少數身邊的幸臣表演的功夫。

On the appointed day, the various motives of flattery, fear, and curiosity, attracted to the amphitheatre an innumerable multitude of spectators: and some degree of applause was deservedly bestowed on the uncommon skill of the Imperial performer. Whether he aimed at the head or heart of the animal, the wound was alike certain and mortal. With arrows, whose point was shaped into the form of a crescent, Commodus often intercepted the rapid career, and cut asunder the long bony neck of the ostrich.A panther was let loose; and the archer waited till he had leaped upon a trembling malefactor. In the same instant the shaft flew, the beast dropped dead, and the man remained unhurt.

到了指定的一天，出於諂媚、恐懼和好奇等等各種各樣的動機，無數的
觀眾被吸引到圓形劇場上來；這位皇帝表演家的非同一般的技藝馬上引起了一陣陣他確也當之無愧的叫好聲。不論他是看准那野獸的頭還是心髒，同樣一出手便能命中，使之立即斃命。用一種形似月牙的箭，康茂德能在一隻鴕鳥迅速奔跑中切斷它的細長的脖子。一隻黑豹被放了出來，這位弓箭手一直等著它直向一個渾身發抖的罪犯撲去。就在這一霎那箭飛了出去，黑豹應聲倒下，那個犯人卻安然無恙。

The dens of the amphitheatre disgorged at once a hundred lions; a hundred darts from the unerring hand of Commodus laid them dead as they ran raging around the Arena. Neither the huge bulk of the elephant, nor the scaly hide of the rhinoceros, could defend them from his stroke. Ethiopia and India yielded their most extraordinary productions; and several animals were slain in the amphitheatre, which had been seen only in the representations of art, or perhaps of fancy. In all these exhibitions, the securest precautions were used to protect the person of the Roman Hercules from the desperate spring of any savage; who might possibly disregard the dignity of the emperor, and the sanctity of the god.

劇場的獅房的門被打開，立即有一百頭獅子同時跑了出來；但在它們
憤怒地繞著競技場奔跑的時候，一百支箭從箭無虛發的康茂德手中飛出，使它們一隻只倒地死去。不論是大象的厚皮還是犀牛的鱗甲都擋不住他的攻擊。埃塞俄比亞和印度送來了它們的最獨特的產物；有幾種在圓形劇場被殺害的動物，除了在繪畫中，或甚至是在想像中，過去誰也不曾見到過。在這類表演中，場上總採取了最可靠的防範措施，以保護這位羅馬的赫耳枯勒斯，以防止有任何一頭野獸，可能不考慮皇帝的威嚴和這神的神聖性不顧一切地向他撲過去。