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Even though Justinian did succeed in taking Italy from the Ostrogoth's,
雖然查士丁尼成功地從東哥特人手中奪回了意大利，
the war was long and bloody and helped stamp out most of the existing Roman culture.
但是戰(zhàn)爭是漫長和血腥的，在這一過程里羅馬文化遭到破壞。
In 568 AD a fierce German tribe known as the Lombard's invaded and shortly retook all of Italy save for Ravenna and its surrounding area.
公元568年，兇猛的哥特部落倫巴第人入侵意大利，并且在很短時間內(nèi)重新奪回意大利(除了拉韋納及周邊地區(qū))。
Italy became a patchwork of Lombarddupdoms or duchies with little or if any residual Roman culture,
意大利成為了倫巴第公國，沒有絲毫羅馬文化的遺跡和殘留了，
save for the Latin language, if you could still call it Latin.
除了拉丁語，如果你還把它視為拉丁語。
Now the rest of the old Roman Empire really did belong to Barbarians.
現(xiàn)在羅馬帝國的剩下地域完全處于蠻族的統(tǒng)治之下。
Indeed I consider the year 568 AD a more logical ending date for the Western Roman Empire,
所以我認為把568年作為西羅馬滅亡的時間更為合理。
far more so than the departure of sad little Romulus Augustus in 476.
而不是476年奧古斯都路斯傷心地離開皇位。
Although the city of Rome was near now but a shadow of itself physically and culturally
雖然羅馬城現(xiàn)在無論是在文化上，還是現(xiàn)實存在感來看，都活在陰影里。
it was still very heavily populated, the masses had to look somewhere for leadership and material assistance,
但它依然人口眾多，群眾需要從其他地方尋找領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者和物質(zhì)援助。
this was provided by the Bishops of Rome, also known as Popes.
而這些都是羅馬主教(或教皇)能提供的。
In the Western Empire the Bishops of Western or the Catholic Church tended to consider themselves equal to the Emperors
在西羅馬帝國，天主教主教常常把自己看成和皇帝地位相等，
and the Bishop of Rome was considered as the Pope to be the prince of Catholic Bishops,
而羅馬主教則被認為是天主教主教的繼任者。
as such Roman Bishops had a great deal of wealth to use,
因此羅馬主教有權(quán)處置一筆可觀的財富，
which they used to fill the void in social services left by the Emperors.
他們用此來填補皇帝所留下社會服務(wù)的空缺和空白。
With the end of the Western Empire the Catholic Church gained even more clout.
隨著西羅馬帝國的滅亡，天主教教會獲得了更大的勢力。
The Bishop of Rome was influential not only at home but all over the Western Empire,
羅馬主教不僅在國內(nèi)，還在整個西羅馬帝國都具有影響力。
in recognition of this fact the Pope Gregory the first, 590 through 604 AD, adopted the old Roman title Pontifus Maximus and started sending ambassadors to the Western countries.
因此，教皇格里高利一世(590-604)使用了古羅馬的頭銜，開始向其他西羅馬國家派送大使。
Although Gregory's relationship with the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs were polite enough,
雖然格里高利和東羅馬東正教保持著禮貌的關(guān)系，
Gregory's papacy or Pope hood marked the beginning of the Roman church's quest for world domination.
但是他成為羅馬教皇，這標志著羅馬教會開始尋求世界性的統(tǒng)治地位。
