Others had preferred to stay among the hills of western Asia and there they had founded the half-independent communities of the Medes and the Persians, two peoples whose names we have copied from the old Greek history-books. In the seventh century before the birth of Christ, the Medes had established a kingdom of their own called Media, but this perished when Cyrus, the chief of a clan known as the Anshan, made himself king of all the Persian tribes and started upon a career of conquest which soon made him and his children the undisputed masters of the whole of western Asia and of Egypt. Indeed, with such energy did these Indo-European Persians push their triumphant campaigns in the west that they soon found themselves in serious difficulties with certain other Indo-European tribes which centuries before had moved into Europe and had taken possession of the Greek peninsula and the islands of the Aegean Sea.
其他人则宁愿留在西亚的群山中，在此建立了米底亚人和波斯人的半独立社区。这两个民族的名字，都得自于古希腊的史书。在公元前17世纪，米底亚人建立起自己的米底亚王国。当安申部落的首领居鲁士成为所有波斯部族的国王时，他消灭了米底亚王国，从此开始四处远征，不久他和他的子孙成为了整个西亚及埃及的无可争议的统治者。凭着蓬勃的精力，这些印欧种族的波斯人继续向西征战，并连连获胜。不久，他们便与数世纪前迁入欧洲并占据了希腊半岛及爱琴海岛屿的另一个印欧部族发生了严重的冲突。
These difficulties led to the three famous wars between Greece and Persia during which King Darius and King Xerxes of Persia invaded the northern part of the peninsula. They ravaged the lands of the Greeks and tried very hard to get a foothold upon the European continent.But in this they did not succeed. The navy of Athens proved unconquerable. By cutting off the lines of supplies of the Persian armies, the Greek sailors invariably forced the Asiatic rulers to return to their base.
这些冲突导致了希腊和波斯之间的三次著名战争。波斯国王大流士和泽克西斯先后率兵入侵半岛北部，掠夺希腊人的领土，并竭尽全力要在欧洲大陆上得到一个根据地。可他们最终失败了。雅典的海军战无不胜。通过切断波斯军队的补给线，雅典的水手总是能迫使亚洲人侵者退回到他们的基地。
It was the first encounter between Asia, the ancient teacher, and Europe, the young and eager pupil. A great many of the other chapters of this book will tell you how the struggle between east and west has continued until this very day.
这是亚洲与欧洲的第一次交锋。一方是古老的导师，一方是年轻气盛的学生。这本书的其它意节还将给你讲述许多东方与西方交手的故事，这种争斗一直持续到现在。