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Confusion and misery reigned in the years after AD 200.
這是在200年后時期里的一場可怕的大混亂和一場可怕的大災難。
In the Roman empire there was almost no one to keep order but slaves or foreign troops who couldn't understand one another.
在羅馬帝國幾乎只還有奴隸和外國軍隊，他們互相合不來。
The peasants in the provinces were unable to pay their taxes and rose up against their landowners.
各行省的農民再也不肯繳稅并反抗他們的莊園主。
In those desperate times, when the land was in the grip of pestilence and lawlessness, many found consolation in the good news of the Gospel.
在這個可怕的災難的時期里，在這個還有瘟疫肆虐、盜匪橫行的時期里，許多人在愉快的消息——福音中找到安慰。
More and more free men and slaves became Christians and refused to make sacrifices to the emperor.
越來越多的自由人和奴隸成為基督徒并拒絕效忠皇帝。
At the height of the crisis a man from a poor family succeeded in wresting control of the empire.
當羅馬帝國陷入最大的困境的時候，一個父母十分貧窮的人奪得帝國的統治權，
This was the Emperor Diocletian. He came to power in 284 and set about trying to rebuild the empire, which was by now in ruins.
那是戴克里先皇帝，他在284年奪取政權。他試圖重建整個已衰敗的國家。
Famine was everywhere, so he fixed a limit on the price of all foods.
由于到處饑荒肆虐，他便規定了一切食品的最高價格。
Realizing that the empire could no longer be governed from a single place, he chose four towns as his new imperial capitals and placed a deputy – or prefect – in each.
他認識到，再也不可能坐鎮在一個地方統治帝國了，所以他規定全國的四座城市為新的首都并在那里委任了四個副皇帝。
