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This changed however after the Eastern Emperor Justinian brutally re-conquered Italy, erasing much of the Roman culture still left, what little culture, infrastructure was left behind was destroyed in the Lombard conquest of Italy, which started in 568 AD.
但是，在東羅馬帝國查士丁尼一世，通過血腥的戰爭，重新占領意大利后，情況就變了，他破壞了大量羅馬遺跡和文化，之后遺留下來為數不多的羅馬文明，也在568年倫巴第人入侵意大利時遭到毀滅，
The city of Rome became a shabby backwater full of crumbling buildings and starving masses.
羅馬城成為一潭死水，破舊不堪，到處是搖搖欲墜的建筑和饑餓嶙峋的民眾。
Only the Bishops of Rome, the Popes, kept the situation from getting worse, but the Papacy was not yet a substitute for effective government. Eventually the Western Empire would be revived, but not until 800 AD.
只有羅馬教皇阻止了事態更進一步惡化，但是羅馬教皇取代不了有效的政府機制，最終西羅馬帝國覆滅，直到公元800年才重新復興強大。
Given the chaos ensuing after the Lombard invasion of Italy 568 AD is my choice of logical ending date for the Western Empire and if you don't like that argue with me.
考慮到倫巴第人在568年入侵意大利后所引起的混亂局面，我認為西羅馬滅亡的時間應該從那時開始算起，有不同意見的人可以和我探討。
Segment 14b: Rome as a Christian Empire.
14章 第二部分 基督教羅馬帝國
The crisis of the third century AD changed the Roman world for good, internally and externally.
三世紀危機徹底改變了羅馬的內部環境和外部環境。
The crisis is said to have ended in 284 AD with the rise of Diocletian.
隨著戴克里先的崛起，284年，三世紀危機結束。
Diocletian's solution was establishing the dominate, a totalitarian state that extracted the maximum wealth from the economy to protect the Roman worlds borders.
戴克里先的方案是建立一個集權統治國家，從經濟中最大程度獲取財富以保護羅馬帝國的邊境。
Save for those closely connected to the Roman imperial family, life got tougher for everybody across the board.
除了那些和羅馬皇室關系密切的人，所有普通百姓的生活日益艱辛起來。
The old state religion of the Romans had changed into the Emperor's cult of personality,
羅馬人以前信仰國教，現在變成了對君主的個人崇拜。
Diocletian had been chosen by the Gods, was a God himself and if you didn't like it you either kept your mouth shut or you got killed.
戴克里先聲稱是被神選中的，他自己就是神，如果其他人有意見，要么乖乖閉嘴，要么就被殺頭。
Understandably many people did not enjoy this sort of existence.
自然，很多人不想要這種君主崇拜。
With so many possible religions to choose from, none grew during the imperial crisis quite like Christianity did.
羅馬人可以有很多種宗教選擇，但是在這場危機中，沒有任何一個宗教的發展壯大的速度可以和基督教相媲美。
