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As for Sulla, he became "Dictator," which meant sole and supreme ruler of all the Roman possessions. He ruled Rome for four years, and he died quietly in his bed, having spent the last year of his life tenderly raising his cabbages, as was the custom of so many Romans who had spent a lifetime killing their fellow-men.
至于蘇拉，他當了"獨裁 官"，意思就是羅馬帝國及其全部財產、屬地的唯一而至高的統治者。他在位4年后退休，安詳地死于臥榻。像許多一輩子屠殺自己同胞的羅馬人一樣，他的晚年安閑適意，把大部分的時間花在了澆花種菜上。
But conditions did not grow better. On the contrary, they grew worse. Another general, Gneus Pompeius, or Pompey, a close friend of Sulla, went east to renew the war against the ever troublesome Mithridates. He drove that energetic potentate into the mountains where Mithridates took poison and killed himself, well knowing what fate awaited him as a Roman captive. Next he re-established the authority of Rome over Syria, destroyed Jerusalem, roamed through western Asia, trying to revive the myth of Alexander the Great, and at last (in the year 62) returned to Rome with a dozen ship-loads of defeated Kings and Princes and Generals, all of whom were forced to march in the triumphal procession of this enormously popular Roman who presented his city with the sum of forty million dollars in plunder.
不過羅馬的政治情勢并未因蘇拉的死去而好轉，相反，局勢急轉直下。蘇拉的密友龐培將軍再度領軍東征，討伐不斷給帝國制造麻煩的米特拉達特斯國王。龐培將這位精力旺盛的反抗者趕人山區，四面包圍起來。絕望的米特拉達特斯深知，若成為羅馬人的俘虜，等待他命運將是什么。于是他也像多年前窮途末路的漢尼拔一樣，服毒自殺了。龐培繼續攻城略地。他打敗敘利亞，將其重新置于羅馬的統治之下；他摧毀了耶路撒冷，并揮師席卷整個西亞，試圖重建一個羅馬人的亞歷山大帝國。最后在公元62年，他返回羅馬，隨行的12艘艦船上滿載著被他俘虜的國王、王子和將軍。在羅馬人為龐培舉行的盛大凱旋儀式上，這些曾顯赫一時的國王將軍們被迫走在隊列之中，作為龐培偉大戰功的一部分向羅馬民眾展示。此外，這位將軍還向羅馬獻上了高達4000多萬的財富。
It was necessary that the government of Rome be placed in the hands of a strong man. Only a few months before, the town had almost fallen into the hands of a good-for-nothing young aristocrat by the name of Catiline, who had gambled away his money and hoped to reimburse himself for his losses by a little plundering.
現在，羅馬確實需要一位政治強人來統治。僅僅在幾個月前，羅馬城險些落人一個一無是處的年輕貴族之手。此人名叫卡梯林，因賭博 輸光了家產。他妄圖發動政變，以便趁火打劫，撈一筆錢來彌補自己的損失。
