[SPQR]開坑講下羅馬帝國衰亡史

But the meanest of the populace were affected with shame and indignation when they beheld their sovereign enter the lists as a gladiator, and glory in a profession which the laws and manners of the Romans had branded with the justest note of infamy. He chose the habit and arms of the Secutor, whose combat with the Retiarius formed one of the most lively scenes in the bloody sports of the amphitheatre. The Secutor was armed with an helmet, sword, and buckler; his naked antagonist had only a large net and a trident; with the one he endeavoured to entangle, with the other to dispatch, his enemy. If he missed the first throw, he was obliged to fly from the pursuit of the Secutor, till he had prepared his net for a second cast. The emperor fought in this character seven hundred and thirty-five times. These glorious achievements were carefully recorded in the public acts of the empire; and that he might omit no circumstance of infamy, he received from the common fund of gladiators, a stipend so exorbitant, that it became a new and most ignominious tax upon the Roman people. It may be easily supposed that in these engagements the master of the world was always successful: in the amphitheatre his victories were not often sanguinary; but when he exercised his skill in the school of gladiators, or his own palace, his wretched antagonists were frequently honoured with a mortal wound from the hand of Commodus, and obliged to seal their flattery with their blood.He now disdained the appellation of Hercules. The name of Paulus, a celebrated His infamy Secutor, was the only one which delighted his ear. It was and inscribed on his colossal statues, and repeated in the extravagance redoubled acclamations of the mournful and applauding senate.

但是，群眾看到他們的君主竟然自願加入格鬥士的行列，並以在一種被羅馬的法律和習俗公正地斥為最可鄙的職業中一顯身手為榮，連他們中地位最低下的一些人也感到羞辱和憤怒。他選用了圓盾手的服裝和武器，他和執網鬥士的戰鬥一般是圓形劇場血腥的競技活動中最生動的一場。圓盾手戴著頭盔，手執一把長劍和一個圓盾；他的裸體的對手手裡就只有一張大網和一把三刃叉；他要用網套住對方，或用叉把敵人刺死。如果一擲不中，那他便必須一邊逃開圓盾手的追逐，一邊準備用他手中的網進行第二次攻擊。這位皇帝總共進行過七百三十五、六次這種戰鬥。這一光輝戰績曾被十分詳細地記錄在帝國的國事記錄中；他不可能把任何丟人的場面略去，他從格鬥士的共同基金中提取津貼，其數目之龐大已成為羅馬人民的一項新的、最為可恥的賦稅負擔。我們很容易認定在所有這些格鬥中這位世界的主宰永遠都是勝利者：在圓形劇場他的勝利不一定全都充滿血腥味；但當他在格鬥士學校，或在他自己的宮廷中進行練習時，他的可憐的對手常不免榮幸地受到康茂德親手賜與的一次致命的禦傷，不得不就此用自己的血結束自己諂媚的一生。他這時對赫耳枯勒斯的稱號又感到討厭了。現在任何名字也不如一名出色的圓盾鬥士的名字保羅斯聽來更為悅耳了。這名字被刻在他的一個巨大的塑像上，同時在元老院的既悲痛又讚賞的巨大的歡呼聲中也曾一再出現。

康茂德現在在犯罪和無恥行徑方面已達到了登峰造極的地步。在朝臣們諂媚的歡呼聲中，他自己也已清楚看出，他只配受到他的帝國中任何一個有頭腦、有品德的人的唾駡與仇恨。他對這種仇恨的覺察、他對任何別人的好名聲的嫉妒、他對危機四伏的處境的正當恐懼，以及他在日常消遣中所養成的以殺人為樂的習慣，都進一步刺激著他的兇殘的本性。史料中保存下了一長串因他的懷疑而被殺害的當政的元老的名單，他曾出於無端的懷疑立即迫不及待地要查出任何不幸和兩安東尼家族有過不管多麼遙遠的關係的人，立即全部處死，甚至連一些原來和他一起作惡、一起尋歡作樂的人也未能倖免。他的殘暴最後終於置他自身於死地。他曾經殺害了許多最高貴的羅馬人而未受到任何懲罰；但他一旦引起自己家裡的人的恐懼也便立即招來了自身的毀滅。

Commodus had now attained the summit of vice and infamy. Amidst the acclamations of a flattering court, he was unable to disguise, from himself, that he had deserved the contempt and hatred of every man of sense and virtue in his empire. His ferocious spirit was irritated by the consciousness of that hatred, by the envy of every kind of merit, by the just apprehension of danger, and by the habit of slaughter, which he contracted in his daily amusements. History has preserved a long list of consular senators sacrificed to his wanton suspicion, which sought out, with peculiar anxiety, those unfortunate persons connected, however remotely, with the family of the Antonines, without sparing even the ministers of his crimes or pleasures. His cruelty proved at last fatal to himself. He had shed with impunity the noblest blood of Rome: he perished as soon as he was dreaded by his own domestics.

他的最受寵愛的情婦馬西婭、他的內侍埃克勒克塔斯和他的衛隊長萊塔斯，看到了他們的夥伴和前任所遭到的命運，決心阻止，或者由於那暴君一時的瘋狂，或者由於人民忽然爆發的憤怒，隨時可能降臨到自己頭上的滅頂之災。

Marcia his favourite concubine, Eclectus his chamberlain, and Laetus his Praetorian praefect, alarmed by the fate of their companions and predecessors, resolved to prevent the destruction which every hour hung over their heads, either from the mad caprice of the tyrant, or the sudden indignation of the people.

在他捕獵野獸回來正感到疲憊不堪的時候，馬西婭抓住機會給她的情人送上了一杯酒。康茂德上床睡覺了，但當毒藥發作加上酒醉，他在床上來回折騰的時候，一個強壯的青年，一位職業摔跤手走進他的臥室裡來，毫不費力地將他掐死。在羅馬城或甚至宮廷中有任何人懷疑到皇帝已死之前，他的屍體已被運出了皇宮。這便是瑪律庫斯的兒子的下場，一個遭人痛恨的暴君，憑藉著人為的統治力量竟能在13年時間中，壓迫著論個人體力和辦事才能都不在他之下的數百萬臣民，而最後要將他消滅卻也竟是如此容易。

Marcia seized the occasion of presenting a draught of wine to her lover, after he had fatigued himself with hunting some wild beasts. Commodus retired to sleep; but whilst he was labouring with the effects of poison and drunkenness, a robust youth, by profession a wrestler, entered his chamber, and strangled him without resistance. The body was secretly conveyed out of the palace, before the least suspicion was entertained in the city, or even in the court, of the emperor's death. Such was the fate of the son of Marcus, and so easy was it to destroy a hated tyrant, who, by the artificial powers of government, had oppressed, during thirteen years, so many millions of subjects, each of whom was equal to their master in personal strength and personal abilities.

the tyrant of a single town, or a small district, would soon discover that an hundred armed followers were a weak defence against ten thousand peasants or citizens; but an hundred thousand well disciplined soldiers will command, with despotic sway, ten millions of subjects; and a body of ten or fifteen thousand guards will strike terror into the most numerous populace that ever crowded the streets of an immense capital.

一個市鎮上或一個小地區的暴君很快會發現，身邊的一百個武裝人員要用來保護自己，不受10000農民或公民的侵犯，那力量可未免太小了；[red]但是，如有10000名訓練有素的士兵，在一個暴君的統領下，卻能讓一千萬臣民俯首貼耳；而且如有15000名衛隊就可以讓一個人口最多的巨大首都的滿街人民全嚇得敢怒而不敢言。

Such formidable servants are always necessary, but often fatal to the throne of despotism. By thus introducing the Praetorian guards, as it were, into the palace and the senate, the emperors taught them to perceive their own strength, and the weakness of the civil government; to view the vices of their masters with familiar contempt, and to lay aside that reverential awe, which distance only, and mystery, can preserve towards an imaginary power.

對專制帝王的王位來說，這樣一支無比強大的奴僕衛隊永遠是必要的，但常常也是致命的。既然如此這般把禁衛軍引進了皇宮和元老院，一些皇帝總教導他們，一定要時刻看到自身力量的強大和民政機關的虛弱；教導他們，以輕蔑的態度看待他們的主子的罪惡行為，並拋開只有靠遠距離和神秘感才能保持的對那種假想力量的敬畏。

In the luxurious idleness of an opulent city, their pride was nourished by the sense of their irresistible weight; nor was it possible to conceal from them, that the person of the sovereign, the authority of the senate, the public treasure, and the seat of empire, were all in their hands. To divert the Praetorian bands from these dangerous reflections, the firmest and best established princes were obliged to mix blandishments with commands, rewards with punishments, to flatter their pride, indulge their pleasures, connive at their irregularities, and to purchase their precarious faith by a liberal donative; which, since the elevation of Claudius, was exacted as a legal claim, on the accession of every new emperor.

長期處在這種由一座富饒城市提供的安逸、奢侈的生活之中，自身具有莫大權力的意識培養了他們的驕橫；漸至使他們不可能不感到君王的生死、元老院的權威、公眾的財富、帝國的安危實際全都掌握在他們的手中。為了使禁衛軍不致沉溺在這危險思想之中，一些最堅強、地位最為穩固的皇帝也不得不恩威並用、賞罰兼施，儘量滿足他們的驕縱，爭取他們的歡心，對他們的越軌行為一味姑息，用大量賞金以買得他們的完全不可恃的忠誠；這賞金自從克勞狄烏斯一步登天以來，便成為每一個新皇帝繼位時不能不支付的合法報酬。

The advocates of the guards endeavoured to justify by arguments, the power which they asserted by arms; and to maintain that, according to the purest principles of the constitution, their consent was essentially necessary in the appointment of an emperor. The election of consuls, of generals, and of magistrates, however it had been recently usurped by the senate, was the ancient and undoubted right of the Roman people

禁衛軍的鼓吹者更企圖從理論上肯定他們靠武力獲得的權力；聲稱，依據最純正的憲法原則來看，皇帝的任何任命都必須得到他們的同意乃是絕對必要的。執政官、將軍和地方官的任命權，儘管近年來已被元老院篡奪，實際卻是羅馬人民的古老的不容懷疑的權利。

But where was the Roman people to be found? Not surely amongst the mixed multitude of slaves and strangers that filled the streets of Rome; a servile populace, as devoid of spirit as destitute of property. The defenders of the state, selected from the flower of the Italian youth, and trained in the exercise of arms and virtue, were the genuine representatives of the people, and the best entitled to elect the military chief of the republic. These assertions, however defective in reason, became unanswerable, when the fierce Praetorians increased their weight, by throwing, like the barbarian conqueror of Rome, their swords into the scale

但是，上哪兒去找羅馬人民呢？我們總不能認為和許多奴隸和外鄉人混雜在一起充滿羅馬街頭的人群就是羅馬人民吧；他們只不過是一群充滿奴性的群氓，在精神方面，也和在物質方面一樣，窮得一無所有。然而，這些國家的保衛者，他們是從義大利青年中挑選出來的精英，受過軍事和品德方面的訓練，是真正的人民的代表，也便最有權利來選定共和國的軍事首領。這類論斷不論如何於理難通，而當兇橫的禁衛軍像那位野蠻的羅馬征服者一樣，把他們的刀劍作為理論根據拋出的時候，自然誰也無言對答了。

The Praetorians had violated the sanctity of the throne, by the atrocious murder of Pertinax; they dishonoured the majesty of it, by their subsequent conduct. The camp was without a leader, for even the Praefect Laetus, who had excited the tempest, prudently declined the public indignation. Amidst the wild disorder Sulpicianus, the emperor's father-in-law, and governor of the city, who had been sent to the camp on the first alarm of mutiny, was endeavouring to calm the fury of the multitude, when he was silenced by the clamorous return of the murderers, bearing on a lance the head of Pertinax.

The victory over the senate was easy and inglorious Every eye and every passion was directed to the supreme magistrate, who possessed the arms and treasure of the state; whilst the senate, neither elected by the people, nor guarded by military force, nor animated by public spirit, rested its declining authority on the frail and crumbling basis of ancient opinion. The fine theory of a republic insensibly vanished, and made way for the more natural and substantial feelings of monarchy. As the freedom and honours of Rome were successively communicated to the provinces, in which the old government had been either unknown, or was remembered with abhorrence, the tradition of republican maxims was gradually obliterated.

每一個人的眼睛和心事都全集中在同時擁有國家的軍力和財富的最高行政官的身上；而既非由人民選出又無軍隊保護，又得不到公眾精神上的支持的元老院，則只能靠舊觀念這個微弱的行將崩潰的基礎勉強維繫著它的日漸削弱的權
威。關於共和制的精闢的理論已在不知不覺中消失，讓位給更自然、更具體的對君主制的感受了。在自由和羅馬的榮譽等觀念逐漸傳到對舊政府或者一無所知，或者只抱有厭惡情緒的各省去的時候，讚美共和制的美好傳統便已漸漸歸於消滅了

The contemporaries of Severus, in the enjoyment of the peace and glory of his reign, forgave the cruelties by which it had been introduced. Posterity, who experienced the fatal effects of his maxims and example, justly considered him as the principal author of the decline of the Roman empire.

塞維魯的同時代人，對他治下的和平、體面的生活甚為滿意，也便不再記得為達到這種生活所經歷的種種殘暴活動了。後代的人，親身嘗到他的理論和榜樣所帶來的苦果，也便正當地把他看作是招致羅馬衰亡的罪魁禍首。

既不神聖，也不羅馬，更非帝國。

既不神聖，也不羅馬，更非帝國。

夠型棍就得


中二到極致都可以好型

既不神聖，也不羅馬，更非帝國。

夠型棍就得


中二到極致都可以好型

神羅只係笑話

中世紀期間羅馬正統在拜占庭