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Segment 13 d, roman totalitarianism
13d 羅馬極權主義
Plagued by civil war, famine and economic chaos the Roman empire was barely hanging on.
羅馬帝國遭遇內戰，饑荒和經濟混亂的折磨已經難以為繼。
Slowly the frontiers stabilized more from lack of outside pressure than from anything the Romans did right.
邊界線穩定下來。卻是由于外部攻擊減少而非羅馬內部的出力。
Stronger emperors like Aurelian 270 to 275 AD were able to suppress rebellions in Gaul and Syria.
像奧勒良這樣比較強勢的皇帝還能夠鎮壓高盧和敘利亞的叛軍。
Yet the principate like the republic three centuries earlier was basically broken.
然而三百年前的那種最高權力基本已經不復存在。
the Roman empire was too large its frontiers too long to be ruled effectively.
羅馬帝國太過廣袤，邊界線太長，無法得到有效的治理。
The government had no time for nice old republican customs like senate meetings and annual elections.
政府沒有時間舉行議會和年度大選這一類老共和國傳統大會。
Citizenship was likewise a thing of the past if you were wealthy and powerful
公民身份也是過去的東西了。如果你有錢有權，
this made you one of the honestiores or the better people. And you told other people what to do.
這會讓你成為榮耀的公民或者上層階級。你可以指使別人干事。
If you got told what to do you were one of the humiliores or worse people. You did as told or else.
如果你要聽從別人的命令，那么你就是賤民或者下層階級。你聽從指揮。
Ironically this distinction between the better and the worse citizens
這種良民賤民之間的區分
echoed the old patrician-plebian divisions of Rome's earliest days, what goes around, comes around.
就類似于羅馬早期貴族和平民之間的區分。種瓜得瓜，種豆得豆。
Those Romans who still embraced the Mos Majorum blamed the Christians for breaking the Pax Deiorum or peace of the gods.
那些仍然相信傳統信仰的羅馬人責怪基督徒打破了神明間的和平。
And blamed them for causing all of the empire's ills.
怪罪他們招致了帝國的不幸。
They found the Christian tendency to endure even the harshest persecution very aggravating.
他們發現基督徒能夠忍受最痛苦的迫害，這讓他們非常惱怒。
The Christians themselves while not openly opposing the roman government still focused less on this secular world that is their everyday lives as Romans and more on their spiritual lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
基督徒自己并沒有公然反對羅馬政府，而是與俗世，也就是作為羅馬人的日常生活保持一種脫離的狀態，更聚焦于自己作為耶穌門徒的精神生活。
Into the situation stepped the emperor Diocletian 284 to 312 AD.
戴克里先正是在這種情況下從公元284年執政到312年。
