Others had preferred to stay among the hills of western Asia and there they had founded the half-independent communities of the Medes and the Persians, two peoples whose names we have copied from the old Greek history-books. In the seventh century before the birth of Christ, the Medes had established a kingdom of their own called Media, but this perished when Cyrus, the chief of a clan known as the Anshan, made himself king of all the Persian tribes and started upon a career of conquest which soon made him and his children the undisputed masters of the whole of western Asia and of Egypt. Indeed, with such energy did these Indo-European Persians push their triumphant campaigns in the west that they soon found themselves in serious difficulties with certain other Indo-European tribes which centuries before had moved into Europe and had taken possession of the Greek peninsula and the islands of the Aegean Sea.
其他人則寧愿留在西亞的群山中，在此建立了米底亞人和波斯人的半獨立社區。這兩個民族的名字，都得自于古希臘的史書。在公元前17世紀，米底亞人建立起自己的米底亞王國。當安申部落的首領居魯士成為所有波斯部族的國王時，他消滅了米底亞王國，從此開始四處遠征，不久他和他的子孫成為了整個西亞及埃及的無可爭議的統治者。憑著蓬勃的精力，這些印歐種族的波斯人繼續向西征戰，并連連獲勝。不久，他們便與數世紀前遷入歐洲并占據了希臘半島及愛琴海島嶼的另一個印歐部族發生了嚴重的沖突。
These difficulties led to the three famous wars between Greece and Persia during which King Darius and King Xerxes of Persia invaded the northern part of the peninsula. They ravaged the lands of the Greeks and tried very hard to get a foothold upon the European continent.But in this they did not succeed. The navy of Athens proved unconquerable. By cutting off the lines of supplies of the Persian armies, the Greek sailors invariably forced the Asiatic rulers to return to their base.
這些沖突導致了希臘和波斯之間的三次著名戰爭。波斯國王大流士和澤克西斯先后率兵入侵半島北部，掠奪希臘人的領土，并竭盡全力要在歐洲大陸上得到一個根據地?？伤麄冏罱K失敗了。雅典的海軍戰無不勝。通過切斷波斯軍隊的補給線，雅典的水手總是能迫使亞洲人侵者退回到他們的基地。
It was the first encounter between Asia, the ancient teacher, and Europe, the young and eager pupil. A great many of the other chapters of this book will tell you how the struggle between east and west has continued until this very day.
這是亞洲與歐洲的第一次交鋒。一方是古老的導師，一方是年輕氣盛的學生。這本書的其它意節還將給你講述許多東方與西方交手的故事，這種爭斗一直持續到現在。
來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/Article/201610/471033.shtml
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