世界小史 第130期:多里安人和伊安尼尔人

 　　Egypt was then governed by a family of generals – the Ptolemies.

　　接着一个将领家族统治了埃及——托勒密王室。

　　The Seleucids ruled Mesopotamia, and the Attalids Asia Minor¹.

　　塞琉古王室统治了美索不达米亚，安提克王室统治了小亚细亚。

　　India was simply abandoned.

　　印度完全丢失。

　　But although the empire was in pieces, Alexander's grand project slowly went on taking shape.

　　但是尽管这个帝国已经分崩离析，亚历山大的计划却慢慢实现了。

　　Greek art and the spirit of Greece had enetrated Persia and passed on through India to China.

　　希腊的艺术和希腊的精神传播至波斯并继续传播至印度甚至中国。

　　Meanwhile the Greeks themselves had learnt that there was more to the world than Athens and Sparta,

　　同时希腊人懂得了雅典和斯巴达还不是整个世界。

　　and more to do than waste their lives in endless squabbling between Dorians and Ionians.

　　对他们来说，有比多里安人和伊安尼尔人之间的无休止的争吵更重要的事。

　　And, having lost the little political power they once had,

　　恰恰是自从他们完全失去了他们的那一点点政治权力以来,

　　the Greeks went on to be the bearers of the greatest intellectual force there has ever been, the force we know as Greek culture.

　　希腊人成了史无前例的最大的精神权力的支柱，我们知道这权力叫希腊文化。

　　This force was protected and preserved in some very special fortresses².

　　这权力受到一些非常特殊的堡垒保护和保存。

　　Can you guess what those fortresses were?

　　你知道这种权力的堡垒是什么吗？

　　They were libraries.

　　是图书馆。

　　Alexandria, for instance, had a Greek library that held around 700,000 scrolls³.

　　譬如亚历山大港就有这样一座希腊图书馆，它约有70万卷书。

　　Those 700,000 scrolls were the Greek soldiers who set off to conquer the world.

　　这70万卷书是希腊士兵，它们占领了整个世界。

　　And that empire is still standing⁴ today.

　　这个世界帝国今天还存在。

1 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

2 fortresses   

堡垒，要塞( fortress的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They will establish impregnable fortresses. 他们将建造坚不可摧的城堡。
• Indra smashed through Vritra ninety-nine fortresses, and then came upon the dragon. 因陀罗摧毁了维他的九十九座城堡，然后与维他交手。 来自神话部分

3 scrolls   

n.（常用于录写正式文件的）纸卷( scroll的名词复数 )；卷轴；涡卷形（装饰）；卷形花纹v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的第三人称单数 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Either turn it off or only pick up selected stuff like wands, rings and scrolls. 把他关掉然后只捡你需要的物品，像是魔杖(wand)，戒指(rings)和滚动条(scrolls)。 来自互联网
• Ancient scrolls were found in caves by the Dead Sea. 死海旁边的山洞里发现了古代的卷轴。 来自辞典例句

4 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。