評論
打印
For whatever reason the Barbarians who raided the Empire preferred striking at the agricultural Western halfof the Empire
無論如何，蠻族入侵更愿意攻打西羅馬農業帝國
than at the urbanized Eastern half of the Empire.
而不是東羅馬高度城市化的帝國。
4.When did the Western Empire fall?
4.西羅馬帝國何時滅亡?
The influential historian Edward Gibbon, a favorite of our nation's founders,
頗具影響力的歷史學家我國最受歡迎的締造者愛德華·吉本
believed that the Western Empire fell in 476 AD with the departure of Romulus Augustus and the accession of King Odovacar of Italy.
認為西羅馬是在476年奧古斯都路斯退位，意大利國王奧多亞克登基后滅亡的 。
It's doubtful that anybody outside of the royal courts noticed any difference, same taxes, same local bureaucracy, same money.
我們懷疑羅馬皇室以外的人是否注意到任何差異，他們交同樣的稅款，服從同樣的官僚機構，使用同樣的貨幣。
When Theodoric and his Ostrogoth's defeated Odovacar in 493 AD
當迪奧多里克等東哥特人在493年打敗奧多亞克時
life again went on pretty much as usual except for that neither Odovacar nor Theodoric
羅馬人的生活里除了奧多亞克和迪奧多里克都沒有
ever claimed to be the Western Emperor, they were only King of Italy.
自稱為西羅馬帝國的皇帝以外，和以往一樣沒有發生任何改變。
Both kings respected the old Roman culture,
這兩個國王都尊重羅馬的古老文化
as did the Eastern Emperor Justinian who had re-conquered Italy and North Africa by 540 AD.
在540年重新奪回意大利和北非的東羅馬皇帝查士丁尼也是如此
Of course Justinian destroyed much of Italy's surviving infrastructure in doing this,
當然，在這一過程中查士丁尼摧毀了意大利余下的設施
but at least he was a genuine Emperor who spoke Latin.
但是至少他是真正的說拉丁語的皇帝
I myself as I have said so before would pick 568 AD,
我之前說過 我個人認為是公元568年
which marked the beginning of the Lombard invasion of Italy
那年，倫巴第入侵意大利，
because under the Lombard's Italy would very soon come to bare very little, if any resemblance to the great city founded at eight o'clock in the morning of Thursday April 21st 753 BC.
因為倫巴第統治下的意大利很快就和成立于公元前753年4月21日星期四上午八點的那座偉大城市幾乎沒有任何相似點了
