纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 025克罗伊斯金币(1)

"Get Rich Quick!" trumpets the promo on a buzzy financial website.

“像克罗伊斯一样富有”是一句流传千年的俗语。

Start with fifty bucks, it says, and very soon, you'll become "rich like Croesus".

直到今天那些宣称50美元就能让你快速发家的投资广告上还会不时出现。

It's a promise that's been made countless times through the centuries, despite financial booms and busts, but what intrigues me most about finding it on this hyper-modern website is that the name of Croesus still stands for the ultimate in wealth.

这样的承诺已经在几个世纪间流传,虽然金融繁荣和萧条并存,但最令我好奇的是什么这位大富豪的名字仍然代表着最终极的财富。

After so many centuries, Croesus is still the world-wide symbol of the man who's made it.

数个世纪过后，克罗伊斯王仍然是世界级的代言人。

The real King Croesus was indeed fabulously rich and, until a horrible twist at the end of his life, he did have a wonderful time with his money.

他确实非常富有，而且据我们所知，在晚年生活出现转折之前，财富一直让他十分快乐。

We don't know who first coined the phrase "as rich as Croesus", but it's now embedded not just in our language but in many others, and we're going to be looking at some of the world's first proper coins in this programme.

我们不知道是谁是第一个在金币上印有“像克罗伊斯一样富有”一词的人,但现在这种习惯不仅深入到我们的语言当中,而且在诸多方面也是如此。本期节目我们就会一睹世界首枚金币的真容。

"I imagined it was flatter and more circular, but this is convex, with a design only on one side."

“我想象的它更平面，更圆,但现在凸,设计只出现在一边。”

"The stamps on them are the guarantee of the weight and the purity."

“上面的印章是重量和纯洁的保证。”