評論
打印
Segment 14e: Conclusions
14章 第五部分 結論
1.Christianizing the Empire
1.基督教帝國
Christianizing the Roman world was a process and not done by imperial directive.
基督教羅馬帝國是個過程，而不是依靠帝王的指令形成的。
Constantine started this process although he never did make Christianity the religion of the Roman state,
這一過程是由君士坦丁開啟的，雖然他從未把基督教確立為國教。
he didn't even convert to Christianity until just before his death.
而且他甚至生前并沒有正式皈依基督教。
The Christian church first attracted imperial notice in the second century AD as waiting for the second coming became less important than preparing the Christian church and its people for when the second did occur.
在公元2世紀，基督教第一次引起了羅馬帝國的注意，耶穌的第二次降臨和為第二次降臨而籌備基督教會和信徒相比已經不再重要了。
The Christian church's focus on the heavenly life to come rather than on the earthly secular life,
基督教會的宣傳重心是在未來天堂般的生活，而不是現實俗世的生活。
won it many followers, as did its social outreach to those less fortunate.
這贏得了眾多追隨者，同時幫助生活不幸者，這提高了它的社會影響力。
When Constantine did give Christianity the status of an officially-approved religion
當君士坦丁正式批準基督教地位時，
he did not persecute Pagans nor did the Christians persecute Pagans at first,
他沒有迫害異教徒，基督徒最初也沒有迫害異教徒，
instead they were more concerned with persecuting other Christians over issues we would now consider trivial.
相反，他們更關心的問題是我們現在認為是微不足道的小問題而互相迫害。
The fact that almost all of Constantine's successors were Christians increased the Christian church's prestige and power,
君士坦丁的繼任者幾乎全都是基督徒，這增加了基督教會的威信和權力。
yet Paganism flourished in Rome itself well into the sixth century after Christ.
不過，在六世紀，異教也在基督教之后在羅馬蓬勃發展。
2. Those dirty Barbarians
2.蠻族的入侵
They came from the East sometimes from as far as Asia.
這些蠻族既有來自東羅馬帝國，也有來自亞洲國家。
The first wave was primarily Germanic tribes such as the various Goth tribes, Visigoths and Ostrogoth's who had basically grown too large to live comfortably within their traditional homelands.
第一個浪潮主要是日耳曼部落，例如各個哥特部落，西哥特人和東哥特人由于人口繁衍過快，在傳統家園里已經無法繼續生存。
The Goths had wanted to settle within the boundaries of Rome and to become Romans
因此，哥特人想定居在羅馬境內成為羅馬人。
but for whatever reason the Romans were not willing to permit this.
但是處于種種原因，羅馬人不贊成這種做法。
By the time Theodosius the first was ready to try assimilating the Goths there were literally too many Germans knocking at Rome's figurative front door.
等到狄奧多西一世準備吸納這些哥特人時，打個比喻來說，真的已經有太多的日耳曼部落來敲打羅馬的大門了。
