Confusion and misery reigned in the years after AD 200.

这是在200年后时期里的一场可怕的大混乱和一场可怕的大灾难。

In the Roman empire there was almost no one to keep order but slaves or foreign troops who couldn't understand one another.

在罗马帝国几乎只还有奴隶和外国军队，他们互相合不来。

The peasants in the provinces were unable to pay their taxes and rose up against their landowners.

各行省的农民再也不肯缴税并反抗他们的庄园主。

In those desperate times, when the land was in the grip of pestilence and lawlessness, many found consolation in the good news of the Gospel.

在这个可怕的灾难的时期里，在这个还有瘟疫肆虐、盗匪横行的时期里，许多人在愉快的消息——福音中找到安慰。

More and more free men and slaves became Christians and refused to make sacrifices to the emperor.

越来越多的自由人和奴隶成为基督徒并拒绝效忠皇帝。

At the height of the crisis a man from a poor family succeeded in wresting control of the empire.

当罗马帝国陷入最大的困境的时候，一个父母十分贫穷的人夺得帝国的统治权，

This was the Emperor Diocletian. He came to power in 284 and set about trying to rebuild the empire, which was by now in ruins.

那是戴克里先皇帝，他在284年夺取政权。他试图重建整个已衰败的国家。

Famine was everywhere, so he fixed a limit on the price of all foods.

由于到处饥荒肆虐，他便规定了一切食品的最高价格。

Realizing that the empire could no longer be governed from a single place, he chose four towns as his new imperial capitals and placed a deputy – or prefect – in each.

他认识到，再也不可能坐镇在一个地方统治帝国了，所以他规定全国的四座城市为新的首都并在那里委任了四个副皇帝。