The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire罗马帝国的兴衰

According to tradition, Rome was founded in 753 BCE, but its rise as a power began after Romans overthrew their kings around 509 BCE and established a republic. Governed by elected magistrates, a powerful Senate, and popular assemblies, the Republic expanded first across Italy and then, through the three Punic Wars against Carthage (264–146 BCE), across the western Mediterranean.按照传统说法，罗马建于公元前753年，但它崛起为强权，始于罗马人约公元前509年推翻王政、建立共和国之后。共和国由选举产生的执政官、权力强大的元老院与公民大会共同治理，先是统一意大利，随后通过对迦太基的三次布匿战争（公元前264–前146年），扩张至整个西地中海。

Rapid conquest brought wealth but also strain. In the first century BCE, ambitious generals — Marius, Sulla, Pompey, and Julius Caesar — turned their armies against one another in civil wars. Caesar's assassination in 44 BCE did not restore the Republic; instead his heir Octavian defeated his rivals and, in 27 BCE, became Augustus, the first Roman emperor, ushering in the Roman Empire while carefully preserving republican appearances.迅速的征服带来财富，也带来压力。公元前1世纪，野心勃勃的将领——马略、苏拉、庞培与尤利乌斯·凯撒——率军相互攻伐，陷入内战。凯撒于公元前44年遇刺并未使共和国复兴；相反，他的继承人屋大维击败对手，于公元前27年成为「奥古斯都」，即罗马首位皇帝，在小心保留共和外衣的同时，开启了罗马帝国时代。

The following two centuries, the Pax Romana, brought relative peace and prosperity to a vast realm stretching from Britain to Egypt and from Spain to Syria. Rome bound this empire together with paved roads, aqueducts, a common coinage, and Roman law. Latin became the language of the western provinces, while Greek prevailed in the east. In this connected world, Christianity spread from Judea across the empire.随后的两个世纪被称为「罗马和平」（Pax Romana），为这个从不列颠到埃及、从西班牙到叙利亚的辽阔帝国带来了相对的和平与繁荣。罗马以铺石大道、引水渠、统一货币与罗马法把帝国连成一体。拉丁语成为西部行省的语言，而东部通行希腊语。正是在这个相互联通的世界里，基督教从犹地亚传遍帝国。

The third century CE brought crisis: civil wars, plague, economic turmoil, and pressure on the frontiers nearly broke the empire. It was stabilized by the reforms of Diocletian and Constantine, who split the administration between east and west and, in 330 CE, made Constantinople a new capital. Constantine also legalized Christianity, which by the century's end became the empire's official religion.公元3世纪爆发危机：内战、瘟疫、经济动荡与边境压力几乎令帝国崩溃。戴克里先与君士坦丁的改革使其稳定下来——他们将行政管理分为东西两部，并于公元330年将君士坦丁堡定为新都。君士坦丁还使基督教合法化，到该世纪末，基督教成为帝国的国教。

In the west, the empire fractured under the weight of internal weakness and the movement of peoples such as the Goths and Vandals across its borders. In 476 CE the last Western Roman emperor was deposed — a conventional marker for the fall of the Western Empire. Yet Rome did not truly vanish: the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire endured for nearly another thousand years, until 1453, and Roman law, Latin, and the idea of empire echoed through medieval and modern Europe.在西部，帝国在内部衰弱与哥特人、汪达尔人等民族越境迁徙的双重压力下四分五裂。公元476年，最后一位西罗马皇帝被废黜——这通常被视为西罗马帝国灭亡的标志。然而罗马并未真正消失：东罗马（拜占庭）帝国又延续了近千年，直到1453年；而罗马法、拉丁语与「帝国」这一理念，则在中世纪与近代欧洲不断回响。