罗马帝国衰亡史 Vol. 1 · Chapter 7 · Part 3

Chapter VII: Tyranny Of Maximin, Rebellion, Civil Wars, Death Of Maximin.—Part III. 第七章 马克西明的暴政、叛乱、内战与马克西明之死——第三节

Chapter VII: Tyranny Of Maximin, Rebellion, Civil Wars, Death Of Maximin.—Part III.

第七章 马克西明的暴政、叛乱、内战与马克西明之死——第三节

On his return from the East to Rome, Philip, desirous of obliterating the memory of his crimes, and of captivating the affections of the people, solemnized the secular games with infinite pomp and magnificence. Since their institution or revival by Augustus, 56 they had been celebrated by Claudius, by Domitian, and by Severus, and were now renewed the fifth time, on the accomplishment of the full period of a thousand years from the foundation of Rome. Every circumstance of the secular games was skillfully adapted to inspire the superstitious mind with deep and solemn reverence. The long interval between them 57 exceeded the term of human life; and as none of the spectators had already seen them, none could flatter themselves with the expectation of beholding them a second time. The mystic sacrifices were performed, during three nights, on the banks of the Tyber; and the Campus Martius resounded with music and dances, and was illuminated with innumerable lamps and torches. Slaves and strangers were excluded from any participation in these national ceremonies. A chorus of twenty-seven youths, and as many virgins, of noble families, and whose parents were both alive, implored the propitious gods in favor of the present, and for the hope of the rising generation; requesting, in religious hymns, that according to the faith of their ancient oracles, they would still maintain the virtue, the felicity, and the empire of the Roman people. The magnificence of Philip’s shows and entertainments dazzled the eyes of the multitude. The devout were employed in the rites of superstition, whilst the reflecting few revolved in their anxious minds the past history and the future fate of the empire.58
腓力自东方返回罗马后，一心想抹去世人对他种种罪行的记忆，博取民众的欢心，于是极尽铺张与豪奢，隆重举办了百年赛会。自从奥古斯都创设——或者说重兴——这一盛典以来56，克劳狄乌斯、图密善、塞维鲁都曾先后举办；如今恰逢罗马建城届满一千年之际，此会已是第五度重开。赛会的每一处安排，都经过精心设计，务求在迷信者心中激起深沉而肃穆的敬畏。两届之间相隔漫长57，竟超过了一个人的寿数；在场的观众谁都不曾亲眼见过上一届，也谁都不敢奢望此生还能再睹第二回。神秘的祭仪一连三夜在台伯河畔举行；战神广场上乐声与舞步交相回响，无数灯烛火炬，将夜空照得通明。奴隶与外邦人一概不得参与这全民的典礼。歌队由二十七名少年与同样人数的少女组成——皆出身名门，父母双全——齐声祈求诸神垂佑，既为眼下，也为新生一代的将来；并在圣歌中恳请诸神，一如古老神谕所昭示的那样，继续护佑罗马人的德行、福祉与霸业。腓力所办的演出与游艺极尽奢华，令万众目眩神迷。虔信之徒忙于种种迷信仪式，而少数深思之士，却忧心忡忡地回想帝国往昔的历史，揣度其未来的命运。58
The limits of the Roman empire still extended from the Western Ocean to the Tigris, and from Mount Atlas to the Rhine and the Danube. To the undiscerning eye of the vulgar, Philip appeared a monarch no less powerful than Hadrian or Augustus had formerly been. The form was still the same, but the animating health and vigor were fled. The industry of the people was discouraged and exhausted by a long series of oppression. The discipline of the legions, which alone, after the extinction of every other virtue, had propped the greatness of the state, was corrupted by the ambition, or relaxed by the weakness, of the emperors. The strength of the frontiers, which had always consisted in arms rather than in fortifications, was insensibly undermined; and the fairest provinces were left exposed to the rapaciousness or ambition of the barbarians, who soon discovered the decline of the Roman empire.
此时罗马帝国的疆界，仍旧西起大西洋、东抵底格里斯河，南自阿特拉斯山、北达莱茵河与多瑙河。在见识浅陋的凡夫俗子眼中，腓力这位君主的威势，丝毫不逊于当年的哈德良或奥古斯都。帝国的形貌依然如故，只是那曾赋予其生机的健康与活力早已消逝。民众长年饱受压迫，勤于生产的锐气早已挫尽，元气也已耗竭。当其余一切美德都已泯灭之后，唯有军团的纪律还独力支撑着国家的强盛；然而这纪律也终于败坏——或因历代皇帝野心的腐蚀，或因其懦弱的纵容。边防的力量，历来靠的是武备而非工事；如今却在不知不觉间被蛀空，最富庶的行省门户洞开，任凭蛮族的贪婪与野心肆意觊觎——而这些蛮族，很快便看穿了罗马帝国正在衰落。

Notes 注释

56
The account of the last supposed celebration, though in an enlightened period of history, was so very doubtful and obscure, that the alternative seems not doubtful. When the popish jubilees, the copy of the secular games, were invented by Boniface VII., the crafty pope pretended that he only revived an ancient institution. See M. le Chais, Lettres sur les Jubiles.
关于据称此前最近一次举办的记载，虽出自历史上一个较为开明的时代，却依然疑窦丛生、含混不清，以至于另一种说法——即此会实为首创而非重兴——反倒几乎无可置疑。后来罗马教廷设立禧年，那正是百年赛会的翻版，出自卜尼法斯七世之手；这位狡黠的教宗佯称，自己不过是重兴一项古老的制度而已。参见 M. le Chais, Lettres sur les Jubiles。
57
Either of a hundred or a hundred and ten years. Varro and Livy adopted the former opinion, but the infallible authority of the Sybil consecrated the latter, (Censorinus de Die Natal. c. 17.) The emperors Claudius and Philip, however, did not treat the oracle with implicit respect.
或为一百年，或为一百一十年。瓦罗与李维采信前一说，但西比拉不容置疑的权威却认可了后一说（Censorinus de Die Natal. c. 17）。不过，克劳狄乌斯与腓力这两位皇帝，对这神谕却并未言听计从。
58
The idea of the secular games is best understood from the poem of Horace, and the description of Zosimus, 1. l. ii. p. 167, &c.] Since Romulus, with a small band of shepherds and outlaws, fortified himself on the hills near the Tyber, ten centuries had already elapsed. 59 During the four first ages, the Romans, in the laborious school of poverty, had acquired the virtues of war and government: by the vigorous exertion of those virtues, and by the assistance of fortune, they had obtained, in the course of the three succeeding centuries, an absolute empire over many countries of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The last three hundred years had been consumed in apparent prosperity and internal decline. The nation of soldiers, magistrates, and legislators, who composed the thirty-five tribes of the Roman people, were dissolved into the common mass of mankind, and confounded with the millions of servile provincials, who had received the name, without adopting the spirit, of Romans. A mercenary army, levied among the subjects and barbarians of the frontier, was the only order of men who preserved and abused their independence. By their tumultuary election, a Syrian, a Goth, or an Arab, was exalted to the throne of Rome, and invested with despotic power over the conquests and over the country of the Scipios.
要真正领会百年赛会的意涵，最好去读贺拉斯的诗篇，以及佐西莫斯的记述（Zosimus, l. ii. p. 167 等处）。自罗慕路斯率一小群牧人与亡命之徒在台伯河畔的山丘上据险自守以来，已然过去整整十个世纪59。头四百年间，罗马人在贫困这所艰苦的学堂里，磨砺出作战与治国的种种德行；随后三百年间，他们奋力施展这些德行，又得命运垂青，遂在欧、亚、非三大洲的诸多邦国之上，建起了一个至高无上的帝国。而最后这三百年，则在表面的繁荣与内里的衰败中虚耗殆尽。当年组成罗马人三十五个部族的，是一个战士、官吏与立法者的民族；如今这个民族已消融于芸芸众生之中，与千百万卑屈的行省臣民混同一体——这些人徒有罗马人之名，却未承其精神。唯有一支雇佣军——从边疆的臣民与蛮族中招募而来——是仅存的仍保有、并滥用其独立的群体。他们乱哄哄地拥立皇帝，任意将一个叙利亚人、一个哥特人或一个阿拉伯人捧上罗马皇位，让他对西庇阿家族当年打下的江山、乃至其故土，握有专断之权。
59
The received calculation of Varro assigns to the foundation of Rome an æra that corresponds with the 754th year before Christ. But so little is the chronology of Rome to be depended on, in the more early ages, that Sir Isaac Newton has brought the same event as low as the year 627 (Compare Niebuhr vol. i. p. 271.—M.)
瓦罗为世人所公认的推算，把罗马建城的年代定在相当于公元前 754 年。不过，罗马早期的纪年实在难以凭信，以至于艾萨克·牛顿爵士竟把同一事件的年代下移到了公元前 627 年。（参较 Niebuhr vol. i. p. 271。—M.）