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Segment 14e: Conclusions
14章 第五部分 结论
1.Christianizing the Empire
1.基督教帝国
Christianizing the Roman world was a process and not done by imperial directive.
基督教罗马帝国是个过程，而不是依靠帝王的指令形成的。
Constantine started this process although he never did make Christianity the religion of the Roman state,
这一过程是由君士坦丁开启的，虽然他从未把基督教确立为国教。
he didn't even convert to Christianity until just before his death.
而且他甚至生前并没有正式皈依基督教。
The Christian church first attracted imperial notice in the second century AD as waiting for the second coming became less important than preparing the Christian church and its people for when the second did occur.
在公元2世纪，基督教第一次引起了罗马帝国的注意，耶稣的第二次降临和为第二次降临而筹备基督教会和信徒相比已经不再重要了。
The Christian church's focus on the heavenly life to come rather than on the earthly secular life,
基督教会的宣传重心是在未来天堂般的生活，而不是现实俗世的生活。
won it many followers, as did its social outreach to those less fortunate.
这赢得了众多追随者，同时帮助生活不幸者，这提高了它的社会影响力。
When Constantine did give Christianity the status of an officially-approved religion
当君士坦丁正式批准基督教地位时，
he did not persecute Pagans nor did the Christians persecute Pagans at first,
他没有迫害异教徒，基督徒最初也没有迫害异教徒，
instead they were more concerned with persecuting other Christians over issues we would now consider trivial.
相反，他们更关心的问题是我们现在认为是微不足道的小问题而互相迫害。
The fact that almost all of Constantine's successors were Christians increased the Christian church's prestige and power,
君士坦丁的继任者几乎全都是基督徒，这增加了基督教会的威信和权力。
yet Paganism flourished in Rome itself well into the sixth century after Christ.
不过，在六世纪，异教也在基督教之后在罗马蓬勃发展。
2. Those dirty Barbarians
2.蛮族的入侵
They came from the East sometimes from as far as Asia.
这些蛮族既有来自东罗马帝国，也有来自亚洲国家。
The first wave was primarily Germanic tribes such as the various Goth tribes, Visigoths and Ostrogoth's who had basically grown too large to live comfortably within their traditional homelands.
第一个浪潮主要是日耳曼部落，例如各个哥特部落，西哥特人和东哥特人由于人口繁衍过快，在传统家园里已经无法继续生存。
The Goths had wanted to settle within the boundaries of Rome and to become Romans
因此，哥特人想定居在罗马境内成为罗马人。
but for whatever reason the Romans were not willing to permit this.
但是处于种种原因，罗马人不赞成这种做法。
By the time Theodosius the first was ready to try assimilating the Goths there were literally too many Germans knocking at Rome's figurative front door.
等到狄奥多西一世准备吸纳这些哥特人时，打个比喻来说，真的已经有太多的日耳曼部落来敲打罗马的大门了。
