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Segment 13 d, roman totalitarianism
13d 罗马极权主义
Plagued by civil war, famine and economic chaos the Roman empire was barely hanging on.
罗马帝国遭遇内战，饥荒和经济混乱的折磨已经难以为继。
Slowly the frontiers stabilized more from lack of outside pressure than from anything the Romans did right.
边界线稳定下来。却是由于外部攻击减少而非罗马内部的出力。
Stronger emperors like Aurelian 270 to 275 AD were able to suppress rebellions in Gaul and Syria.
像奥勒良这样比较强势的皇帝还能够镇压高卢和叙利亚的叛军。
Yet the principate like the republic three centuries earlier was basically broken.
然而三百年前的那种最高权力基本已经不复存在。
the Roman empire was too large its frontiers too long to be ruled effectively.
罗马帝国太过广袤，边界线太长，无法得到有效的治理。
The government had no time for nice old republican customs like senate meetings and annual elections.
政府没有时间举行议会和年度大选这一类老共和国传统大会。
Citizenship was likewise a thing of the past if you were wealthy and powerful
公民身份也是过去的东西了。如果你有钱有权，
this made you one of the honestiores or the better people. And you told other people what to do.
这会让你成为荣耀的公民或者上层阶级。你可以指使别人干事。
If you got told what to do you were one of the humiliores or worse people. You did as told or else.
如果你要听从别人的命令，那么你就是贱民或者下层阶级。你听从指挥。
Ironically this distinction between the better and the worse citizens
这种良民贱民之间的区分
echoed the old patrician-plebian divisions of Rome's earliest days, what goes around, comes around.
就类似于罗马早期贵族和平民之间的区分。种瓜得瓜，种豆得豆。
Those Romans who still embraced the Mos Majorum blamed the Christians for breaking the Pax Deiorum or peace of the gods.
那些仍然相信传统信仰的罗马人责怪基督徒打破了神明间的和平。
And blamed them for causing all of the empire's ills.
怪罪他们招致了帝国的不幸。
They found the Christian tendency to endure even the harshest persecution very aggravating.
他们发现基督徒能够忍受最痛苦的迫害，这让他们非常恼怒。
The Christians themselves while not openly opposing the roman government still focused less on this secular world that is their everyday lives as Romans and more on their spiritual lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.
基督徒自己并没有公然反对罗马政府，而是与俗世，也就是作为罗马人的日常生活保持一种脱离的状态，更聚焦于自己作为耶稣门徒的精神生活。
Into the situation stepped the emperor Diocletian 284 to 312 AD.
戴克里先正是在这种情况下从公元284年执政到312年。
