第二十章

　　Alexander the Great

　　亚历山大大帝

　　Alexander the Macedonian establishes a Geek world-empire, and what became of this high ambition

　　马其顿的亚历山大大帝建立了一个希腊式的世界帝国，他的雄心壮志究竟结果如何呢？

　　When the Achaeans had left their homes along the banks of the Danube to look for pastures new, they had spent some time among the mountains of Macedonia. Ever since, the Greeks had maintained certain more or less formal relations with the people of this northern country. The Macedonians from their side had kept themselves well informed about conditions in Greece.

　　当亚该亚人离开他们在多瑙河畔的家园，向南寻找新牧场时，他们曾在马其顿的群山中度过了一段岁月。从此，希腊人一直与他们北部的邻居保持着或多或少的正式关系。在马其顿人这方面，他们也一直关注着希腊半岛上局势的最新进展。

　　Now it happened, just when Sparta and Athens had finished their disastrous war for the leadership of Hellas, that Macedonia was ruled by an extraordinarily clever man by the name of Philip. He admired the Greek spirit in letters and art but he despised the Greek lack of self-control in political affairs. It irritated him to see a perfectly good people waste its men and money upon fruitless quarrels. So he settled the difficulty by making himself the master of all Greece and then he asked his new subjects to join him on a voyage which he meant to pay to Persia in return for the visit which Xerxes had paid the Greeks one hundred and fifty years before.

　　那时，斯巴达和雅典刚结束了他们争夺希腊半岛领导权的战争，马其顿正好由一位名为菲利浦的才智超群的能人统治着。他倾慕希腊的文学与艺术，但对他们在政治事物中的缺乏效率和自制却大为蔑视。看着一个优秀的民族把它的人力和金钱都浪费在毫无成效的争吵之上，这让菲利浦非常恼火。他出兵希腊，使自己成为它的主人，终于解决了这一难题。然后，他便要求新归顺的希腊臣民们加人他策划以久的远征，前往波斯，作为150年前对泽克西斯访问希腊的"回访"。

　　Unfortunately Philip was murdered before he could start upon this wellprepared expedition. The task of avenging the destruction of Athens was left to Philip's son Alexander, the beloved pupil of Aristotle, wisest of all Greek teachers.

　　很不幸的是，精心准备的远征还没来得及出发，菲利浦便被谋杀了，为希腊复仇的任务落到了他的儿子亚历山大的身上。亚历山大是伟大的希腊导师、哲学家亚里士多德心爱的学生，精通政治、军事、哲学、艺术，对希腊文化抱有深厚的情感。

　　Alexander bade farewell to Europe in the spring of the year 334 B.C. Seven years later he reached India. In the meantime he had destroyed Phoenicia, the old rival of the Greek merchants. He had conquered Egypt and had been worshipped by the people of the Nile valley as the son and heir of the Pharaohs. He had defeated the last Persian king-he had overthrown the Persian empire he had given orders to rebuild Babylon-he had led his troops into the heart of the Himalayan mountains and had made the entire world a Macedonian province and dependency. Then he stopped and announced even more ambitious plans.

　　公元前304年春，亚历山大挥师作别欧洲。7年之后，他的大军抵过了印度。在漫长的征途中，他消灭了希腊商人的宿敌腓尼基，征服了埃及，被尼罗河谷的人民尊为法老的儿子与继承人。他击败了最后一任波斯国王，推翻了整个波斯帝国。他下令重建巴比伦，并率兵挺进到喜玛拉雅山的心脏地带。现在，整个世界都变成了马其顿的行省和属国。然后他停下脚步，推行起另一个更为雄心勃勃的计划。