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Yet this Roman state religion was already lacking in spiritual content.
但是羅馬國教缺少精神內涵
National pride in the glorious Roman Republic
對光榮的羅馬共和國的驕傲
and the glorious imperium Romanum was all well and good,
以及光輝的羅馬帝國都是很棒的
but a religion which does not explain human existence,
但是這個宗教不解釋人類存在
a religion which does not give any hope of any kind of afterlife,
不給人們來世的任何希望
or which does not really compel good behavior is not really meeting the needs of the people, it supposedly serves.
或者不強迫人們做善事因此，這個宗教沒有真正滿足人們的需求
Three, Democracy vs. Oligarchy.
三，民主對寡頭政治
The mechanics of Roman elections were very complicated.
羅馬的選舉機制非常復雜
And they favored the more wealthy voters.
對富有的選民更有利
For example, Magistrates who had imperium,
例如有統治權的裁判官
that means consuls and praetors, were elected by the Centuriate Assembly.
也即是執政官和裁判官是百人團會議選舉出來的
And the Centuriate Assembly was openly stacked in favor of people who had more money.
百人團會議是公開的對有錢的人更有利
Consequently, in order to become politically prominent,
結果是，要在政治上有突出表現
a family had to be either be very rich, or it had to become very rich.
這個人就要很富有要不就能變得很富有
Although this was not the most democratic way to proceed, at least the process of becoming wealthy
盡管這不是最民主的方式至少變得富有的過程
became a test for Roman families trying to win political influence.
是對試圖獲得政治影響力的羅馬家庭的考驗
New blood did enter the Roman ruling classes,
新鮮血液進入羅馬的統治階層
but the interests of this new political elite,
但是這些新興政治精英的利益
the so-called noble class were rather more business oriented,
所謂的貴族階級的利益通常是在商業方面
than the approach of the old patricians from the days of the mos maiorum.
而不是像舊貴族那樣是從祖上繼承而來
Four, the civilized wars and the uncivilized wars.
四，文明戰爭和非文明戰爭
The Roman concept of ius fetiales remains present to this very day.
羅馬的ius fetiales概念延續至今
The Romans believed that
羅馬人認為
their deities would not support Roman military efforts unless the Romans were demonstrably in the right.
神靈只會支持羅馬的正義之戰
The record would indicate that the Roman's belief was accurate.
歷史預示著羅馬的信仰是正確的
More importantly, the process of determining
更重要的是，決定即將發生的戰爭
whether an impending war was just or unjust meant that the Romans could not undertake wars rashly.
是否正義的過程意味著羅馬人不能草率對待法律
The Romans eventually figured out workarounds for making their enemies attack.
羅馬人最終找出了變通方法讓敵人主動進攻
They found workarounds for convincing their deities that they were really in the right,
他們找打別的方法說服神靈他們站在正義的一方
no matter what happened, much as societies do today.
不管發生什么，現在的社會也效仿這種做法
