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In the year 203 B.C. Scipio had crossed the African Sea and had carried the war into Africa.
公元前203年，西皮奧率軍渡過阿非利加海，將戰火燒到非洲。
Carthage had called Hannibal back. Badly supported by his mercenaries, Hannibal had been defeated near Zama.
迦太基緊急召回漢尼拔。由于漢尼拔率領的雇傭軍士氣低落，并不真心為迦太基而戰，因此他在扎馬附近被擊敗。
The Romans had asked for his surrender and Hannibal had fled to get aid from the kings of Macedonia and Syria, as I told you in my last chapter.
羅馬人要求他投降，但漢尼拔逃往亞洲的敘利亞和馬其頓尋求支持。這些是我在上一章告訴過你們的。
The rulers of these two countries (remnants of the Empire of Alexander the Great) just then were contemplating an expedition against Egypt.
敘利亞和馬其頓的統治者（二者都是亞歷山大的帝國分裂后的殘余）當時正策劃遠征埃及，
They hoped to divide the rich Nile valley between themselves.
企圖瓜分富饒的尼羅河谷。
The king of Egypt had heard of this and he had asked Rome to come to his support.
埃及國王聽聞了風聲，急忙向羅馬人求援。
The stage was set for a number of highly interesting plots and counter-plots.
看樣子，一連串富于戲劇性的陰謀與反陰謀即將上演。
But the Romans, with their lack of imagination, rang the curtain down before the play had been fairly started.
可是，一貫缺乏想象力的羅馬人在大戲還未開演前就粗暴地拉上了帷幕。
Their legions completely defeated the heavy Greek phalanx which was still used by the Macedonians as their battle formation.
羅馬軍團 一舉摧毀了馬其頓人沿用的希臘重裝步兵方陣。
That happened in the year 197 B.C. at the battle in the plains of Cynoscephal, or "Dogs' Heads," in central Thessaly.
這場戰役發生在公元前197年，地點位于色薩利中部的辛諾塞法利平原，也稱"狗頭山"。
The Romans then marched southward to Attica and informed the Greeks that they had come to "deliver the Hellenes from the Macedonian yoke."
隨后，羅馬人向半島南部的阿提卡進軍，并通知希臘人，要把他們"從馬其頓的重軛下解放出來"。
The Greeks, having learned nothing in their years of semi-slavery, used their new freedom in a most unfortunate way.
可多年的半奴役生涯，并未使希臘人學得聰明一點，他們把新獲得的自由 耗費在最無意義事情上。
