But when they set out to do something, they did it, even if it took 200 years,

但是他们一旦决心要做什么事，他们便总是将其实现，哪怕这要持续2000年，

for they were peasants through and through, not restless seafarers like the Athenians.

因为他们正是地地道道的、土生土长的农民，不是像雅典人那样坚持不懈的航海者。

Their homes, their livestock and their land – these were what mattered. They cared little for travel, they founded no colonies.

他们的家园，他们的畜群和他们的土地——这些是他们看重的。他们不怎么喜欢航行，他们也不建立殖民地。

They loved their native city and its soil and would do anything and everything to increase its prosperity and power.

他们热爱他们的故土和他们的城市，他们会竭尽全力，使之更加繁荣富强。

They would fight for it and they would die for it.

他们会为之战斗，为之死亡。

Beside their native soil there was one other thing that was important to them: their law.

除了他们的故土以外，他们只还看重一样东西：他们的法律。

Not the law that is just and fair and before which all men are equal, but the law which is law.

不是在其面前人人平等的公正之法，而是法律的法。

The law that is laid down.

这样的法律被写下来了。

Their laws were inscribed on 12 bronze tablets set out in the marketplace.

他们的法律写在城市广场上的12块铜匾上。

And those few, stern words meant precisely what they said.

那上面简洁、严肃的文字准确的表明了他们所说的法律。

No exceptions, no compassion, no mercy.

没有例外，也没有同情或宽宥。

For these were the laws of their ancestors and they must be right.

因为这是他们祖先的法律，因为如此，它们一定是正确的法律。