评论
打印
In 476 AD the west ran out of puppet emperors with one Romulus Augustus.
476年，西罗马找不出其他傀儡皇帝了，只剩下了罗慕路·奥古斯都路斯。
The Eastern Empire would continue and sometimes even mildly thrive for another millennium.
而东罗马又继续延续了一个世纪，中间甚至出现了较为繁荣的景象。
There is no one reason why the Western Roman Empire collapsed but several contributing factors are clear,
为什么西罗马会灭亡，这不是一句话能解释的，而是几个影响因素共同作用的。
the most important factor is of course the numerous Barbarian invasions.
当然，最重要的因素就是蛮族的多次入侵。
In 407 the Angles, Saxons and Jutes conquered Britain, in 410 the Visigoths, last seen on the banks of the Danube, sacked Rome.
407年，盎格鲁人撒克逊人和朱特人征服英国，410年，最后一个定居多瑙河南岸的部落，西哥特人洗劫了罗马城。
In 411 the Vandals showed up in Spain and soon spread into northern Africa, in 451 Attila the Hun invaded Italy but stopped short of sacking Rome. In 455 the Vandals came in and captured Rome yet again, I think you get the picture.
411年，汪达尔人出现在西班牙，并且迅速遍布在非洲北部。451年，阿提斯匈奴入侵意大利，洗劫了罗马后，455年，汪达尔人再次入侵，占领罗马我想大家应该明白我的意思了。
The sky rocketing costs of running a huge military and a huge bureaucracy, required more income than could provide.
要使一个巨大的军事机构和官僚机构正常运行，成本急剧飙升。这意味着需要更多地收入，这些却无法得到满足。
The intermittent sacking of Rome certainly hurt the imperial morale not to mention the Romans themselves
罗马间歇性地遭到洗劫，无疑会影响帝国的士气，更不用说罗马人自己了。
but the Vandals control of Gall, Spain and Africa effectively cut the Western Empire off from its most valuable territories.
汪达尔人有效地控制了高卢，西班牙和非洲，而它们是西罗马帝国最具有价值的领土，这切断了收入来源。
As upper classes will do the Western elite did their best to dodge taxes,
在上层阶级中 西罗马的精英想尽一切办法逃避税收，
the brunt of the taxes fell upon the impoverished peasantry who had hardly any food much less money,
纳税负担首当其冲，落到了一贫如洗的农民身上当时的农民已经没饭吃了，更别提金钱了。
when farmers fled to the shelter of wealthy landlords who could protect them,
因此农民逃到富裕的地主那里寻求庇护，
the result was even lower farm production and acute manpower shortages.
所造成的结果就是农业生产力下降，人手更加短缺。
Another result was feudalism, what little money the Western Empire had went to bribe the less dangerous Germanic tribes to defend the Western Empire from the more dangerous Germanic tribes.
以及封建主义的出现，西罗马拿不出钱贿赂那些较弱的日耳曼部落来保卫帝国 以免受到较为强大的日耳曼部落的入侵。
When the Vandals marched on Rome in 455 BC the city was powerless to resist.
当455年汪达尔人入侵罗马城时，这个城市已经无力反抗了。
