Today's programme is particularly fascinating though, because it's a special case.
關于羅寒塔石碑,首先有一個特別吸引人的關于權力斗爭的故事。
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.
故事與一位孱弱的國王有關,他只能借助神靈,或名說是祭司的強大力量來維護自己的地位。
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,這個年僅六歲的希臘男孩登上了埃及的王座。當時,他已父母雙亡。
Ptolemy V was born into a great dynasty.
托勒密五世出生在一個偉大的王朝。
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.
托勒密一世是歷山大大帝的將領,在亞歷山大死后接管了埃及,那是在托勒密五世登基前約一百年前的事。
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.
托勒密不愿學埃及語,因而命令所有的埃及官員都使用希臘語,于是在長達一千年的時間里,希臘語一直是埃及的官方語言。
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.
這個王朝最偉大的成就,也許就是把首都亞歷山大港建成了古代世界最輝煌的城市之一。在好幾百年間,它都是僅次于羅馬的世界第二大都市,在學術方面甚至還更活躍一些。
It was a cosmopolitan magnet for goods, people and ideas.
它是匯集貨物、人口與思想的所在。
The vast Library of Alexandria was built by the Ptolemies-in it, they planned to collect all the world's knowledge.
托勒密國王修建了巨大的圖書館,想要搜羅全球智慧。
And Ptolemies I and II created the famous Pharos lighthouse, which became one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
托勒密一世與二世還建造了成為古代世界七大奇跡之一的著名的法洛斯燈塔。