视听文本

As the second coming of Jesus Christ seemed less and less imminent the Christians had to organize their faith or else.
随着耶稣的再临看起来越来越遥远，基督徒不得不组织结构自己的信仰。
But the Christian message itself never did change, the current world, the secular world with its Caesars and its civil wars was only passing,
但是基督教要传达的信息并没有发生改变，当下的世界，这个有着凯撒和内战的俗世终会成为过去，
a rehearsal for the eternal heavenly life to come in the future following the second coming.
现在只是在为未来基督再临后获得永恒的天堂生活进行排练。
Not only was this message especially attractive in especially difficult times
这个信息在艰难的时候不仅听起来特别诱人，
but the Christian church actually had a very good track record for meeting the physical needs of the less fortunate among them.
事实上基督教堂也能够满足那些穷人的生理需求。

Consequently the Christian church provoked two drastically different reactions during these times.
因此基督教堂在当时引发的是两种截然不同的反应。
Either wholehearted acceptance, sign me up, or desperate fury at this offence against the Mos Majorum and the roman gods.
人们要么是全心全意地接受，加入，要么是为基督教破坏了罗马神明间的和平而愤怒不已。
Four, cult of personality.
第四点 个人崇拜
The cult of the emperor's personality had always been a crucial part of the principate
对于皇帝个人的崇拜一直是元首制的一个重要部分，
the princeps was worshipped as a god in the eastern parts of the empire
在帝国东部，元首像神明一样接受崇拜，
and he was the subject of much great poetry and art devoted to his wonderful nature.
也是很多伟大诗歌和艺术所描摹的对象。
But the good old Mos Majorum would never have accepted in Augustus' time a princeps who called himself a living god among the Romans.
但是奥古斯都大帝时期的罗马人是绝对不能接受元首自称为罗马神明中的一员的。
Yet, the crisis of the third century had so crippled the Roman world
然而，第三世界危机已经使罗马世界陷入瘫痪，
that the elaborate pretences of the principate were no longer necessary.
元首也就不再有必要遮遮掩掩。
Sadly Rome was ready to move from disguised tyranny to open tyranny.
罗马从伪装下的暴政走向了公开的暴政。
What mattered most by Diocletian's time was security at any cost.
在戴克里先之前，最重要的是不惜一切代价维持安定。
As long as the Roman world was ruled by a man; any man could challenge him,
但是只要统治罗马世界的是一个人，他就可能遭到任何人的挑战，
but if it was ruled by a god of so Diocletian believed men might be more afraid to challenge him.
而如果统治罗马世界的是一个神，戴克里先认为人们就不大敢质疑权威了。
This was not the same sort of god as promoted by the emperor cult during the principate.
这和元首制时期所推崇的皇帝个人崇拜并不相同。
Diocletian adorned himself appointed divinity with a wide range of rituals and rules
戴克里先为自己增添了神性用一系列的礼仪和规矩
designed to exempt his status as dominus et deius. Master and god.
来体现自己作为上帝的地位。自己是主人，是神。
Even his Christian successors after dropping the god part of course retained the rituals and passed them down
而他之后的基督徒继位者丢弃了礼仪中上帝的部分，保留了其余的礼制，一直沿袭了下去，
down through the Byzantines, down through the Russians, down through the British, down to our very day.
传到拜占庭，传到俄国，传到英国，一直延续到今天。

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：