视听文本

Yet this Roman state religion was already lacking in spiritual content.

但是罗马国教缺少精神内涵

National pride in the glorious Roman Republic

对光荣的罗马共和国的骄傲

and the glorious imperium Romanum was all well and good,

以及光辉的罗马帝国都是很棒的

but a religion which does not explain human existence,

但是这个宗教不解释人类存在

a religion which does not give any hope of any kind of afterlife,

不给人们来世的任何希望

or which does not really compel good behavior is not really meeting the needs of the people, it supposedly serves.

或者不强迫人们做善事因此，这个宗教没有真正满足人们的需求

Three, Democracy vs. Oligarchy.

三，民主对寡头政治

The mechanics of Roman elections were very complicated.

罗马的选举机制非常复杂

And they favored the more wealthy voters.

对富有的选民更有利

For example, Magistrates who had imperium,

例如有统治权的裁判官

that means consuls and praetors, were elected by the Centuriate Assembly.

也即是执政官和裁判官是百人团会议选举出来的

And the Centuriate Assembly was openly stacked in favor of people who had more money.

百人团会议是公开的对有钱的人更有利

Consequently, in order to become politically prominent,

结果是，要在政治上有突出表现

a family had to be either be very rich, or it had to become very rich.

这个人就要很富有要不就能变得很富有

Although this was not the most democratic way to proceed, at least the process of becoming wealthy

尽管这不是最民主的方式至少变得富有的过程

became a test for Roman families trying to win political influence.

是对试图获得政治影响力的罗马家庭的考验

New blood did enter the Roman ruling classes,

新鲜血液进入罗马的统治阶层

but the interests of this new political elite,

但是这些新兴政治精英的利益

the so-called noble class were rather more business oriented,

所谓的贵族阶级的利益通常是在商业方面

than the approach of the old patricians from the days of the mos maiorum.

而不是像旧贵族那样是从祖上继承而来

Four, the civilized wars and the uncivilized wars.

四，文明战争和非文明战争

The Roman concept of ius fetiales remains present to this very day.

罗马的ius fetiales概念延续至今

The Romans believed that

罗马人认为

their deities would not support Roman military efforts unless the Romans were demonstrably in the right.

神灵只会支持罗马的正义之战

The record would indicate that the Roman's belief was accurate.

历史预示着罗马的信仰是正确的

More importantly, the process of determining

更重要的是，决定即将发生的战争

whether an impending war was just or unjust meant that the Romans could not undertake wars rashly.

是否正义的过程意味着罗马人不能草率对待法律

The Romans eventually figured out workarounds for making their enemies attack.

罗马人最终找出了变通方法让敌人主动进攻

They found workarounds for convincing their deities that they were really in the right,

他们找打别的方法说服神灵他们站在正义的一方

no matter what happened, much as societies do today.

不管发生什么，现在的社会也效仿这种做法

视频及简介

课程介绍:
本课程对罗马帝国和前苏联的兴衰进行回顾，探讨它们历史变迁的内在规律，并将现代的超级大国——美国与它们进行比较，从而作出对未来可能的一些预测。

原声视频：