从罗马建城以来的历史(Ab urbe Condita)序言
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李维(Livy; Titus Livius)，从罗马建城以来的历史(The History of Rome; Ab urbe Condita)序言
译: wwmidia 2004-04-22从最初开始记述罗马帝国的人民所经历的完整历史――这就是我正在进行的工作。很难说我是否能得到跟付出的努力相应的回报，其实即使知道我也会缄口不提，因为这是一项经年而共同的事业，每个精力充足的作者都会因不同的原因有这个念头，觉得自己的作品会或是做出比前人更准确的记述，或是构筑超越前人的粗陋的优雅风格。不管眼下的这一部会如何，都将带给我极大的满足，只因为我也参与其中，可以竭尽所能，鼓起更大的兴致，完成世界第一帝国的编年记录。倘若，在如此之多的作者中我的名字会显得黯然无光，我也将为那些超越了我的光华而欣然。
进一步说，这个主题需要的努力是惊人的。罗马历史前溯达700多年，从一个细小且卑微的发端演变为如今的规模，甚至历史本身也快要承受不了这份壮阔。同时我还非常确信，我的大多数读者对最初及紧接着的一段并无太大兴趣，他们会急于翻到近现代部分，看看帝国千百年来的无上权威是如何被内部的衰败所消弭。而反过来，我倒可以在这点上获得另一份回报：对常年以来我们这一代所亲身感受的罪恶视而不见。至少，在我把全部心力集中到追溯那些远古的清朗的史料中时，我可以从一切烦恼焦急中解脱，享受属于历史学者的快乐时光――诚然，这并不足以让我彻底忘记现实。
在罗马城建立之前的历史――或者说，传说――更适合于诗歌的创作而不是历史学者作权威的记录。我并不打算去确定这些传说的正确与否，因为我们应该允许我们的祖先，为了给国家的诞生以更巍然的尊严，把人和神的事迹交错在一起来记述和流传。现在，如果有一个国家，理当被认可他们所宣称的神圣起源，这个国家就是罗马。凭籍战场上所堆积的无数荣耀，全世界都――如同认同罗马的统治一样――认同战神Mars是罗马帝国的祖先，是罗马创始人的生父。至于对此会产生的观点和批评，我全然不关心，我只恳请读者投以最热切的目光的，是初期社会的生活和道德；是通过国内的民主和国外的战事赢得和扩张罗马的统治地位的伟人们和他们的人格；以及在随后的道德没落中，国家的传统和精神沦丧的轨迹：如何从一开始慢慢下降，又越来越快，直至不可收拾地堕落到今天的地步的。现在的我们既无法忍受眼前的流弊，又无法承受前人疗法的苛烈。
在历史学习过程中意想不到的有益且丰富的收获，正如你所见，源于清晰明了、形形色色的史实和史料。从中你和你的国家可以找出值得借鉴的，也可以找出那些有着祸害的开端和灾难的后果的来防微杜渐。然而，即使如上种种，除非我被我对工作的情感所误导，我还是要宣称――没有任何国家，无论现存或曾经存在，比罗马更为强大，道德更为纯洁，有着更多动人的故事，或者比罗马更晚地受到了贪婪和奢侈的毒害，或者对贫穷有着更高和更长久的歌颂――因为贫穷是源于欲求的淡泊。在稍后的年代里贪婪伴随财富而来，享乐主义的愈演愈烈带给人们毁灭自我的迷乱，和放纵自我的性乱。批评有时也许是必要的，但如果是在这部深远的作品开头，作为一切的起点出现，就不令人欢迎了，这里自然是应有一个好的征兆，或者，按诗歌的传统，以祷告作为开始，将更令人欣然。
在此乞求神灵们，请赋予这项事业以恩惠和成功。
此文译自英译本，取自University of Virginia图书馆的在线文本中心，文本的具体信息如下：
Titus Livius Editor Ernest Rhys Translator Rev. Canon Roberts
Everyman's Library
J.M. Dent and Sons
LondonE.P. Dutton and Co.
New York
1912Everyman's Library: Classical: PA 6453 .A2 1912
Prepared for the University of Virginia Library Electronic Text Center.
Spell-check and verification made against printed text using WordPerfect spell checker.
Published: 1905
Whether the task I have undertaken of writing a complete history of the Roman people from the very commencement of its existence will reward me for the labour spent on it, I neither know for certain, nor if I did know would I venture to say. For I see that this is an old-established and a common practice, each fresh writer being invariably persuaded that he will either attain greater certainty in the materials of his narrative, or surpass the rudeness of antiquity in the excellence of his style. However this may be, it will still be a great satisfaction to me to have taken my part, too, in investing, to the utmost of my abilities, the annals of the foremost nation in the world with a deeper interest; and if in such a crowd of writers my own reputation is thrown into the shade, I would console myself with the renown and greatness of those who eclipse my fame. The subject, moreover, is one that demands immense labour. It goes back beyond 700 years and, after starting from small and humble beginnings, has grown to such dimensions that it begins to be overburdened by its greatness. I have very little doubt, too, that for the majority of my readers the earliest times and those immediately succeeding, will possess little attraction; they will hurry on to these modern days in which the might of a long paramount nation is wasting by internal decay. I, on the other hand, shall look for a further reward of my labours in being able to close my eyes to the evils which our generation has witnessed for so many years; so long, at least, as I am devoting all my thoughts to retracing those pristine records, free from all the anxiety which can disturb the historian of his own times even if it cannot warp him from the truth.
The traditions of what happened prior to the foundation of the City or whilst it was being built, are more fitted to adorn the creations of the poet than the authentic records of the historian, and I have no intention of establishing either their truth or their falsehood. This much licence is conceded to the ancients, that by intermingling human actions with divine they may confer a more august dignity on the origins of states. Now, if any nation ought to be allowed to claim a sacred origin and point back to a divine paternity that nation is Rome. For such is her renown in war that when she chooses to represent Mars as her own and her founder's father, the nations of the world accept the statement with the same equanimity with which they accept her dominion. But whatever opinions may be formed or criticisms passed upon these and similar traditions, I regard them as of small importance. The subjects to which I would ask each of my readers to devote his earnest attention are these-the life and morals of the community; the men and the qualities by which through domestic policy and foreign war dominion was won and extended. Then as the standard of morality gradually lowers, let him follow the decay of the national character, observing how at first it slowly sinks, then slips downward more and more rapidly, and finally begins to plunge into headlong ruin, until he reaches these days, in which we can bear neither our diseases nor their remedies.
There is this exceptionally beneficial and fruitful advantage to be derived from the study of the past, that you see, set in the clear light of historical truth, examples of every possible type. From these you may select for yourself and your country what to imitate, and also what, as being mischievous in its inception and disastrous in its issues, you are to avoid. Unless, however, I am misled by affection for my undertaking, there has never existed any commonwealth greater in power, with a purer morality, or more fertile in good examples; or any state in which avarice and luxury have been so late in making their inroads, or poverty and frugality so highly and continuously honoured, showing so clearly that the less wealth men possessed the less they coveted. In these latter years wealth has brought avarice in its train, and the unlimited command of pleasure has created in men a passion for ruining themselves and everything else through self-indulgence and licentiousness. But criticisms which will be unwelcome, even when perhaps necessary, must not appear in the commencement at all events of this extensive work. We should much prefer to start with favourable omens, and if we could have adopted the poets' custom, it would have been much pleasanter to commence with prayers and supplications to gods and goddesses that they would grant a favourable and successful issue to the great task before us.
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[quote]原帖由 [i]露卡公主[/i] 于 2008-2-24 07:09 发表 [url=http://bbs.xyz-soft.com/redirect.php?goto=findpost&pid=382871&ptid=21263][img]http://bbs.xyz-soft.com/images/common/back.gif[/img][/url]
比起帝国我更喜欢共和国时期～～
还有那在迦太基的伟大战略之父汉尼拔诅咒万恶的马略与苏拉，还有暴民政治的开端，格拉古兄弟 [/quote]
恩 阿非利加的希皮阿万岁
敌人不退出意大利 罗马就决不和谈.....
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