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Even though Justinian did succeed in taking Italy from the Ostrogoth's,
虽然查士丁尼成功地从东哥特人手中夺回了意大利，
the war was long and bloody and helped stamp out most of the existing Roman culture.
但是战争是漫长和血腥的，在这一过程里罗马文化遭到破坏。
In 568 AD a fierce German tribe known as the Lombard's invaded and shortly retook all of Italy save for Ravenna and its surrounding area.
公元568年，凶猛的哥特部落伦巴第人入侵意大利，并且在很短时间内重新夺回意大利(除了拉韦纳及周边地区)。
Italy became a patchwork of Lombarddupdoms or duchies with little or if any residual Roman culture,
意大利成为了伦巴第公国，没有丝毫罗马文化的遗迹和残留了，
save for the Latin language, if you could still call it Latin.
除了拉丁语，如果你还把它视为拉丁语。
Now the rest of the old Roman Empire really did belong to Barbarians.
现在罗马帝国的剩下地域完全处于蛮族的统治之下。
Indeed I consider the year 568 AD a more logical ending date for the Western Roman Empire,
所以我认为把568年作为西罗马灭亡的时间更为合理。
far more so than the departure of sad little Romulus Augustus in 476.
而不是476年奥古斯都路斯伤心地离开皇位。
Although the city of Rome was near now but a shadow of itself physically and culturally
虽然罗马城现在无论是在文化上，还是现实存在感来看，都活在阴影里。
it was still very heavily populated, the masses had to look somewhere for leadership and material assistance,
但它依然人口众多，群众需要从其他地方寻找领导者和物质援助。
this was provided by the Bishops of Rome, also known as Popes.
而这些都是罗马主教(或教皇)能提供的。
In the Western Empire the Bishops of Western or the Catholic Church tended to consider themselves equal to the Emperors
在西罗马帝国，天主教主教常常把自己看成和皇帝地位相等，
and the Bishop of Rome was considered as the Pope to be the prince of Catholic Bishops,
而罗马主教则被认为是天主教主教的继任者。
as such Roman Bishops had a great deal of wealth to use,
因此罗马主教有权处置一笔可观的财富，
which they used to fill the void in social services left by the Emperors.
他们用此来填补皇帝所留下社会服务的空缺和空白。
With the end of the Western Empire the Catholic Church gained even more clout.
随着西罗马帝国的灭亡，天主教教会获得了更大的势力。
The Bishop of Rome was influential not only at home but all over the Western Empire,
罗马主教不仅在国内，还在整个西罗马帝国都具有影响力。
in recognition of this fact the Pope Gregory the first, 590 through 604 AD, adopted the old Roman title Pontifus Maximus and started sending ambassadors to the Western countries.
因此，教皇格里高利一世(590-604)使用了古罗马的头衔，开始向其他西罗马国家派送大使。
Although Gregory's relationship with the Eastern Orthodox patriarchs were polite enough,
虽然格里高利和东罗马东正教保持着礼貌的关系，
Gregory's papacy or Pope hood marked the beginning of the Roman church's quest for world domination.
但是他成为罗马教皇，这标志着罗马教会开始寻求世界性的统治地位。
