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The Romans had held both halves of the Empire together for three major reasons.
羅馬人能把東西兩個帝國統一起來主要有3個原因。
First the Romans willingness to embrace Greek culture had made it easy to rule
首先，羅馬人愿意繼承希臘文化，這讓他們更容易統治
the Greek speaking peoples of the Empires eastern half.
東部地區，那些使用希臘語的人。
Two Augustus' success at fixing the dead Roman republic and balancing civilian and military power had made the Pax Romana possible.
其次，奧古斯都成功地挽救了垂死的羅馬共和國，平衡了平民力量和軍事力量，使羅馬帝國統治下的和平成為可能。
Third the Romans were just plain lucky, lucky that no evil empire or marauding Barbarians had been knocking down Rome's doors or to be more precise Rome's limes but by Theodosius' death the Greek and Roman cultures had fused as much as they were going to fuse and now they were starting to split along religious lines. The Pax Romana now existed only in fits and starts.
第三，羅馬人很幸運。幸運沒有邪惡的帝國或者劫掠的蠻族前來敲響羅馬的大門。準確地說，是羅馬的疆界。在狄奧多西死之前，羅馬文明和希臘文明已經最大程度地融合在一起了。現在，二者要因為宗教原因而走向分裂。羅馬帝國統治下的和平只斷斷續續地存在。
Finally, the Roman world was beset by dangerous enemies on almost all sides.
最后，羅馬幾乎是四面都受到強敵的圍攻夾擊。
Neither Arcadias nor Honorius was cut out to rule half of the Roman Empire.
無論是阿卡狄烏斯還是霍諾里烏斯都無力統治東西羅馬帝國。
Honorius indeed was said to be such a dimbulb that "Roma" to him meant only the name of his pet chicken.
據說，霍諾里烏斯很愚蠢。“羅馬城”對他來說，只是他一只小雞寵物的名字。
Rome had come down quite a bit in other ways too.
羅馬城在其他方面也每況愈下。
It had become more or less a provincial backwater thanks to its distance from the military flashpoints of the Western Empire.
由于它和西羅馬帝國的軍事沖突地點相去甚遠，差不多已經成為了遙遠地方的一汪死水。
Beginning in 402 AD Honorius would rule the Western Empire from Ravenna in Italy's far north-west,
402年以后，霍諾里烏斯龜縮在拉韋納統治其以外的西羅馬帝國，拉韋納在意大利西北角。
an isolated garrison town surrounded by marshes and far closer to the Danube and Rhine frontiers.
是個嚴密布防的孤立小鎮，四周沼澤環繞，更加靠近萊茵河和多瑙河的邊境。
Arcadias, meanwhile, ruled from the growing city of Constantinople,
阿卡狄烏斯則統治著日益興旺的城市即君士坦丁堡，
already a military centre and fast becoming the cultural centre of the Eastern Empire.
它已經是軍事中心了，很快將成為東羅馬帝國的文明中心。
Both Arcadias and Honorius left the real work of running the Empire to German generals and/or trusted confidents, each was succeeded by a rush of puppet emperors who were controlled by more of the usual generals and trusted confidents.
阿卡狄烏斯和霍諾里烏斯其實都把統治羅馬的真正重任給了日耳曼將軍和親信。隨后，東西羅馬帝國都出現了若干傀儡皇帝，被更多的日耳曼軍事首領和親信玩弄于鼓掌之間。
