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A few years before, Zoae?, the daughter of his brother Thomas, had married Ivan III of Russia. In this way did the grand-dukes of Moscow fall heir to the traditions of Constantinople. The double-eagle of old Byzantium (reminiscent of the days when Rome had been divided into an eastern and a western part) became the coat of arms of modern Russia. The Tsar who had been merely the first of the Russian nobles, assumed the aloofness and the dignity of a Roman emperor before whom all subjects, both high and low, were inconsiderable slaves.
幾年前，帕利奧洛格的兄長(zhǎng)托馬斯之女左伊公主嫁給俄羅斯的伊凡三世為妻。這樣一來，莫斯科大公便順理成章成為了君士坦丁堡傳統(tǒng)的繼承人。古老的拜占庭雙鷹標(biāo)志（紀(jì)念羅馬被分為東羅馬和西羅馬的日子）延續(xù)到現(xiàn)代俄羅斯的徽章之中，曾經(jīng)僅僅是俄羅斯首席貴族的大公搖身而為沙皇。他獲得了羅馬皇帝一樣的崇高與威嚴(yán)，凌駕于所有臣民之上。在他面前，無論貴族還是農(nóng)奴，都是無足輕重的奴隸。
The court was refashioned after the oriental pattern which the eastern Emperors had imported from Asia and from Egypt and which (so they flattered themselves) resembled the court of Alexander the Great. This strange inheritance which the dying Byzantine Empire bequeathed to an unsuspecting world continued to live with great vigour for six more centuries, amidst the vast plains of Russia. The last man to wear the crown with the double eagle of Constantinople, Tsar Nicholas, was murdered only the other day, so to speak. His body was thrown into a well. His son and his daughters were all killed. All his ancient rights and prerogatives were abolished, and the church was reduced to the position which it had held in Rome before the days of Constantine.The eastern church however fared very differently, as we shall see in the next chapter when the whole Christian world is going to be threatened with destruction by the rival creed of an Arab camel-driver.
沙皇的宮殿依東方風(fēng)格而建，這是東羅馬皇帝從亞洲和埃及引人的，外形酷似亞歷山大大帝的王宮（按他們的自我恭維）。垂死的拜占庭帝國(guó)流傳給一個(gè)不確定世界的這份奇特遺產(chǎn)，以蓬勃的精力在俄羅斯廣袤無邊的大草原上繼續(xù)生存，度過了6個(gè)漫長(zhǎng)的世紀(jì)。最后一個(gè)佩戴拜占庭雙鷹標(biāo)志皇冠的是沙皇尼古拉二世，可以說，他是在不久前才被殺害的，尸體被扔進(jìn)一口井里。與他一起死去的還有他的兒子和女兒們。所有他享有的古老特權(quán)也一并被廢除，教會(huì)在俄羅斯的地位又回到了康士坦丁皇帝之前的羅馬時(shí)代。不過羅馬天主教會(huì)的遭遇卻截然不同。正如我們?cè)谙乱徽聦?huì)看到的，整個(gè)基督教世界將面臨一個(gè)阿拉伯放牧駱駝的先知者的威脅。
