The Rise 罗马崛起 - 11

【collation】
The next night, when he knew Lucretia's husband was away, King Tarquin's son crept back to her house alone. With a knife at her throat, he raped¹ her, and swore that if she breathed a word of it, he'd kill her. That would be unnecessary. The next day, too proud to live with her dishonor, Lucretia killed herself. Romans went wild, mobs tore through the streets, and attacked the Etruscans wherever they found them. A stern nobleman named Brutus organized a furious attack on the Etruscan king and his courtiers. They were overwhelmed, and fled for their lives. Romans were finally free of their Etruscan overlords. Lucretia's legacy² to Rome was its freedom.

Romans vowed³ they would never again live under a king. So how exactly were they going to live? How would they govern themselves? Their solution was momentous⁴. They declared that the affairs of Rome would belong to the people that citizens would vote and that Rome would be a Res publica ,a public affair, a Republic. Government would no longer be the business of kings. Rome would be ruled by laws and elected officials. The first two elected leaders called consuls⁵ were Brutus and Lucretia's widowed husband.

"And so a king was replaced with, first, two praetors, eventually, two consuls. With two, both of them in an agreement on everything elected annually⁶, so that no one person ever had very much power for very long at all. And this paranoia⁷ about kings continues all the way through Roman history."

In ways he never could have imagined, Servius's census⁸ has born fruit. The new Republic would be organized according to the voting categories and classes he put in place 40 years earlier. The birth of the republic staked Rome's claim to a place in history.

SPQR was the Republic's banner: Senatus Populus que Romanus: the Senate and people of Rome. It was the ancient world's first representational government. It paved the way for Rome's glories and all democracies to come.

1 raped   

v.以暴力夺取，强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 )；强奸

参考例句：

• A young woman was brutally raped in her own home. 一名年轻女子在自己家中惨遭强暴。 来自辞典例句
• We got stick together, or we will be having our women raped. 我们得团结一致，不然我们的妻女就会遭到蹂躏。 来自辞典例句

2 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

3 vowed   

起誓，发誓（vow的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• He vowed quite solemnly that he would carry out his promise. 他非常庄严地发誓要实现他的诺言。
• I vowed to do more of the cooking myself. 我发誓自己要多动手做饭。

4 momentous   

adj.重要的，重大的

参考例句：

• I am deeply honoured to be invited to this momentous occasion.能应邀出席如此重要的场合，我深感荣幸。
• The momentous news was that war had begun.重大的新闻是战争已经开始。

5 consuls   

领事( consul的名词复数 )； （古罗马共和国时期）执政官 （古罗马共和国及其军队的最高首长，同时共有两位，每年选举一次）

参考例句：

• American consuls warned that millions more were preparing to leave war-ravaged districts. 美国驻外领事们预告，还有几百万人正在准备离开战争破坏的地区。
• The legionaries, on their victorious return, refused any longer to obey the consuls. 军团士兵在凯旋归国时，不肯服从执政官的命令。

6 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

7 paranoia   

n.妄想狂，偏执狂；多疑症

参考例句：

• Her passion for cleanliness borders on paranoia.她的洁癖近乎偏执。
• The push for reform is also motivated by political paranoia.竞选的改革运动也受到政治偏执狂症的推动。

8 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。