纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 033罗塞达石(2)

Today's programme is particularly fascinating though, because it's a special case.

关于罗寒塔石碑,首先有一个特別吸引人的关于权力斗争的故事。

It's about a ruler who is not strong but weak, a king who has to bargain for and protect his power by borrowing the invincible strength of the gods or, more precisely, the priests.

故事与一位孱弱的国王有关,他只能借助神灵,或名说是祭司的强大力量来维护自己的地位。

We're in Egypt, with Ptolemy V, a Greek boy-king who came to the throne as an orphan in 205 BC, at the age of six.

他便是托勒密五世,在公元前205年，这个年仅六岁的希腊男孩登上了埃及的王座。当时,他已父母双亡。

Ptolemy V was born into a great dynasty.

托勒密五世出生在一个伟大的王朝。

The first Ptolemy was one of Alexander the Great's generals who, around a hundred years earlier, had taken over Egypt following Alexander's death.

托勒密一世是历山大大帝的将领，在亚历山大死后接管了埃及,那是在托勒密五世登基前约一百年前的事。

The Ptolemies didn't trouble to learn Egyptian, they simply made all their officials speak Greek, and so Greek would be the language of state administration in Egypt for a thousand years.

托勒密不愿学埃及语，因而命令所有的埃及官员都使用希腊语,于是在长达一千年的时间里，希腊语一直是埃及的官方语言。

Perhaps their greatest achievement was to make their capital city Alexandria into the most brilliant metropolis of the Greek-speaking world-for centuries it was second only to Rome.

这个王朝最伟大的成就，也许就是把首都亚历山大港建成了古代世界最辉煌的城市之一。在好几百年间，它都是仅次于罗马的世界第二大都市，在学术方面甚至还更活跃一些。

It was a cosmopolitan magnet for goods, people and ideas.

它是汇集货物、人口与思想的所在。

The vast Library of Alexandria was built by the Ptolemies-in it, they planned to collect all the world's knowledge.

托勒密国王修建了巨大的图书馆，想要搜罗全球智慧。

And Ptolemies I and II created the famous Pharos lighthouse, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

托勒密一世与二世还建造了成为古代世界七大奇迹之一的著名的法洛斯灯塔。