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For the Greeks, who loved moderation in all things, did not like to treat their slaves after the fashion which afterward was so common in Rome, where a slave had as few rights as an engine in a modern factory and could be thrown to the wild animals upon the smallest pretext.
對"萬事追求適度"的古希臘人來說，他們寧愿以溫 和的方式對待奴隸。之后的古羅馬人要冷酷得多。羅馬人的奴隸不僅如同現(xiàn)代工廠里的機器，沒有絲毫的權(quán)利，而且常常因微小的過失，便被主人投入魯欄喂野獸。
The Greeks accepted slavery as a necessary institution, without which no city could possibly become the home of a truly civilised people.
古希臘人視奴隸制為一種必要的制度。缺少這種制度，任何城市都不可能成為文明人舒適的家園。
The slaves also took care of those tasks which nowadays are performed by the business men and the professional men. As for those household duties which take up so much of the time of your mother and which worry your father when he comes home from his office, the Greeks, who understood the value of leisure, had reduced such duties to the smallest possible minimum by living amidst surroundings of extreme simplicity.
奴隸們也從事像今天由商人和專業(yè)人員擔(dān)任的復(fù)雜工作。至于那些占據(jù)了你母親大部分時間，并讓你父親下班之后愁眉不展的家務(wù)勞動，古希臘人則對之不以為然。他們深諳閑適生活的價值，通過居住在最為簡樸的環(huán)境里，他們把家務(wù)勞動降到了最低的程度。
To begin with, their homes were very plain. Even the rich nobles spent their lives in a sort of adobe barn, which lacked all the comforts which a modern workman expects as his natural right. A Greek home consisted of four walls and a roof. There was a door which led into the street but there were no windows. The kitchen, the living rooms and the sleeping quarters were built around an open courtyard in which there was a small fountain, or a statue and a few plants to make it look bright.
首先，古希臘人的房屋非常簡樸。甚至富人們都居住在土坯的大房子里。現(xiàn)代工人認(rèn)為是應(yīng)該享受的那些舒適條件，在他們的屋子里可是一樣沒有。希臘人的屋子由四面墻和一個屋頂組成，有一扇通向街道的門，但沒有窗戶。廚房、起居室、臥室環(huán)繞著一個露天庭院，庭院里有一座噴泉或是一些小型雕塑，還有幾株植物，使整個環(huán)境顯得寬敞明亮。
