美国学生人类历史 第93期:罗马帝国的故事(3)

 　　They crouched¹ together in filthy² hovels in the suburbs of the large cities. They were apt to get sick and die from terrible epidemics³. They were all profoundly discontented. They had fought for their country and this was their reward. They were always willing tolisten to those plausible⁴ spell-binders who gather around a public grievance⁵ like so many hungry vultures, and soon they became a grave menace to the safety of the state.

　　他们聚居在大城市郊区肮脏污秽的棚屋里，糟糕的卫生条件使他们极易患病，而一旦染上瘟疫便必死无疑。他们个个心怀不满，怨气冲天。看看吧，他们都曾为祖国而战，可祖国竟如此回报他们！因此，他们很愿意倾听演说家们的煽动言辞。这些野心家别有用心地把这群饿鹰似的人们聚集在自己身旁，很快便成为了国家的严重威胁。

　　But the class of the newly-rich shrugged⁶ its shoulders. "We have our army and our policemen," they argued, "they will keep the mob in order."And they hid themselves behind the high walls of their pleasant villas⁷ and cultivated their gardens and read the poems of a certain Homer which a Greek slave had just translated into very pleasing Latin hexameters.

　　新兴的富人阶级看到这种情形，只是轻描淡写地耸耸肩膀。"我们拥有军队和警察，"富人们争辩道，"他们能使暴徒们保持安静。"随后，他们便躲进自己高墙环绕的舒适别墅，惬意地修花剪草，或是读上几行希腊奴隶为其主子译为优美拉丁文的荷马史诗。

　　In a few families however the old tradition of unselfish service to the Commonwealth⁸ continued. Cornelia, the daughter of Scipio Africanus, had been married to a Roman by the name of Gracchus. She had two sons, Tiberius and Gaius. When the boys grew up they entered politics and tried to bring about certain much-needed reforms. A census⁹ had shown that most of the land of the Italian peninsula was owned by two thousand noble families. Tiberius Gracchus, having been elected a Tribune, tried to help the freemen. He revived two ancient laws which restricted the number of acres which a single owner might possess. In this way he hoped to revive the valuable old class of small and independent freeholders. The newlyrich called him a robber and an enemy of the state.

　　不过在几个贵族世家里，古老共和国时代的质朴品德和无私的服务精神还保持着。科内莉亚是阿非利加将军西皮奥的女儿，她嫁给一位名为格拉古的罗马贵族。她生下两个儿子，一个叫提比略，一个叫盖约斯。长大后，两人都进人了政坛，并努力实施了几项急需的改革措施。提比略·格拉古当选为保民官，他想帮助处于困境自由 民。为此，他恢复了两项古代的法律，把个人可以拥有的土地数量限制在一定的范围内。他希望通过此项改革，复兴对国家极有价值的小土地所有者阶层。可他的行动遭到了富人们的仇视，暴发户们称他为"强盗"和"国家公敌"。

1 crouched   

v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He crouched down beside her. 他在她的旁边蹲了下来。
• The lion crouched ready to pounce. 狮子蹲下身，准备猛扑。

2 filthy   

adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的

参考例句：

• The whole river has been fouled up with filthy waste from factories.整条河都被工厂的污秽废物污染了。
• You really should throw out that filthy old sofa and get a new one.你真的应该扔掉那张肮脏的旧沙发，然后再去买张新的。

3 epidemics   

n．流行病

参考例句：

• Reliance upon natural epidemics may be both time-consuming and misleading. 依靠天然的流行既浪费时间，又会引入歧途。
• The antibiotic epidemics usually start stop when the summer rainy season begins. 传染病通常会在夏天的雨季停止传播。

4 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。

5 grievance   

n.怨愤，气恼，委屈

参考例句：

• He will not easily forget his grievance.他不会轻易忘掉他的委屈。
• He had been nursing a grievance against his boss for months.几个月来他对老板一直心怀不满。

6 shrugged   

vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Sam shrugged and said nothing. 萨姆耸耸肩膀，什么也没说。
• She shrugged, feigning nonchalance. 她耸耸肩，装出一副无所谓的样子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 villas   

别墅，公馆( villa的名词复数 )； （城郊）住宅

参考例句：

• Magnificent villas are found throughout Italy. 在意大利到处可看到豪华的别墅。
• Rich men came down from wealthy Rome to build sea-side villas. 有钱人从富有的罗马来到这儿建造海滨别墅。

8 commonwealth   

n.共和国，联邦，共同体

参考例句：

• He is the chairman of the commonwealth of artists.他是艺术家协会的主席。
• Most of the members of the Commonwealth are nonwhite.英联邦的许多成员国不是白人国家。

9 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。