没有价值的政客、放纵的公民和不平等为罗马所造就的
Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell into Tyranny. By Edward Watts.Basic Books; 352 pages; $32. To be published in Britain in March; £25.
Shakespeare missed a trick. His version of Julius Caesar’s funeral does, admittedly, have its moments. But he might have done even better had he read his Appian. For while the Bard’s version musters oratorical verve, the historian’s offers a coup de théâtre, complete with the astute use of props, sightlines and stagecraft.
莎士比亚错过了一招。 不可否认，他的尤里乌斯·恺撒的葬礼版本确实精彩绝伦。 但如果他读了Appian，他可能会做得更好。 虽然诗人的版本充满了演说的神韵，但是历史学家却完整地用道具、灯光和舞台剧技巧“造了戏剧的反”。
Before the funeral, well aware that Caesar’s corpse would be obscured by the throng, a wax cast of the body was prepared, with each of the assassins’ blows marked on it clearly. This was then erected above Caesar’s bier. As the Roman people filled the Forum, a mechanical device rotated the model slowly, revealing the 23 “gaping” wounds to everyone. The crowd, as they say, went wild.
在葬礼之前，毫无疑问恺撒的尸体会被人群围了个水泄不通，身体的蜡铸像早就准备好了，每个刺客的攻击清楚地标在上面。 然后在凯撒的棺材上方竖立起来。 当罗马人挤满论坛广场时，一个机械设备缓慢地旋转模型，向每个人展示了23个“裂开”的伤口。 正如他们所说，人群陷入疯狂。
Caesar’s reign—and its bloody end and bloodier aftermath—would later come to be seen as a turning point in the history of Rome. And indeed it was, but as Edward Watts points out in “Mortal Republic”, the Republic had been in its death throes for decades. The decline was caused less by gaping wounds than gaping inequality, and by leaders unable or unwilling to remedy it. If that syndrome sounds familiar, it is meant to. Mr Watts says inquiries about how antiquity can illuminate the “occasionally alarming political realities of our world” prompted his reflections.
恺撒的统治——以及它的血腥结局和更血腥的余波—— 后来将被视为罗马历史的转折点。 事实确实如此，但正如Edward Watts在其书 Mortal Republic 中所指出的那样，共和国几十年来一直处于死亡之中。 造成这种衰亡的原因主要不是外部创伤，而是不平等程度的不断扩大，以及领导者无法或不愿意采取补救措施。 如果这种症状听起来很熟悉，那就对了。 Watts先生说，关于古代如何能够阐明“我们世界偶尔惊人的政治现实”的调查促使他反思。
This ominously titled book is his response, furnished with such nudgingly apposite chapters as “The Politics of Frustration” and “The Republic of the Mediocre”. His gambit isn’t new: the classical world is often used as a lens through which to examine modernity. Want to understand China? Read Thucydides. Need to know about Afghanistan? Best study Plutarch. This trick can easily go awry: the past was not just the present in togas, as some historians would do well to remember. But Mr Watts pulls it off deftly.
这本标题不吉利的书是他的回应，并配有“The Politics of Frustration（政治的挫败）”和“The Republic of the Mediocre（庸人的共和国）”这样与之契合的章节名。 他的策略并不新鲜：古典世界经常被用作审视现代性的镜像。 想了解China吗？ 阅读修昔底德。需要了解阿富汗？ 最好的读读普鲁塔克。 这种伎技巧也很容易出错：过去不仅仅是穿着托加的当下，像那些历史学家会记得很好的那样。 但Watts先生巧妙地把它拉了出来。
He begins by taking the reader on a brisk march through Roman history. The Republic’s early citizens were legendarily hardy. In the late third century bc, faced with multiple threats, Rome entered a state Mr Watts describes as “an ancient version of total war”. Two-thirds of the male citizen population between 17 and 30 years old were enrolled in the army, ready to die for Rome. And die they did, cut down in battle after battle like fields of wheat. During one engagement with Hannibal, tens of thousands were killed. The Roman response was to regroup—and win.
他首先将读者带入罗马历史的大跃进时代。 共和国的早期公民非常勤奋。 在公元前三世纪后期，面对多重威胁，罗马进入他所描述的“古老版本的全面战争”。 17至30岁的男性公民人口中有三分之二入伍，准备为罗马而死。 他们死了，在战争中倒下犹如被收割的麦子。 在与汉尼拔的一次交战中，数万人被杀。 罗马人的反应是重新集结并最终获胜。
Such sturdiness didn’t last. By the second century bc, the formerly united Republic had been split into two factions—not by war but by wealth. On one side was a class of “superwealthy Romans”, enriched by military conquest and growing financial sophistication. They dined off silver plate, ate imported fish, drank vintage wine and holidayed in extravagant Mediterranean villas. One of the most powerful was Crassus, a man who made his fortune in unscrupulous property deals, then used that money to buy political influence.
这种坚韧不会持久。到公元前二世纪，以前统一的共和被分裂成两派—— 不是战争而是财富。 一派是一类“超级富裕的罗马人”，他们通过军事征服和日益增长的金融成熟而得到了巨大的财富。 他们用银餐具，吃进口鱼，喝典藏葡萄酒，在奢华的地中海别墅度假。 最有影响力的人之一是克拉苏，一个在无节制财产交易中赚钱的人，然后利用这笔钱购买政治影响力。
Yet while some Romans swilled from ornate goblets, the majority drank a more bitter draught. They endured a life of backbreaking work and the knowledge that they would almost certainly end up poorer than their parents. Such a situation could hardly last—and didn’t.
然而，虽然有些罗马人在华丽的高脚杯中酒醉金迷，但大多数人都得喝更苦的苦水。他们忍受着艰苦的生活、工作并且知道他们几乎肯定会比他们的父母更穷。 这种情况很难持久，事实上也没有。
What remains one of the world’s longest-lasting republics fell by the end of the first century bc, to be replaced by autocracy. Rome had defeated its enemies abroad but, argues Mr Watts, it was undone from within by greed and inequality—and by the sort of politicians “who breach a republic’s political norms”, plus “citizens who choose not to punish them”.
世界上持续时间最久的共和国之一，在公元一世纪末轰然倒塌，被独裁统治所取代。罗马共和国在对外战争中未曾失败，但Watts先生认为，贪婪和不平等以及“违反共和国政治规范的政客”连同“选择不惩罚他们的公民”从内部葬送了她。
GreatBaron translated from The Economist，Lessons from the fall of a great republic