亚历山大大帝[外语爱好者论坛]

Now it happened, just when Sparta2) and Athens3) had finished their disastrous war for the leadership of Hellas4), that Macedonia5) was ruled by an extraordinarily clever man by the name of Philip. He admired the Greek spirit in letters6) and art but he despised7) the Greek lack of self-control in political affairs. It irritated8) 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 Persia9) in return for the visit which Xerxes had paid the Greeks one hundred and fifty years before.
　　Unfortunately Philip was murdered before he could start upon this well-prepared expedition. The task of avenging10) the destruction of Athens was left to Philip's son, Alexander, the beloved pupil of Aristotle, wisest of all Greek teachers.
　　Alexander bade farewell to11) Europe in the spring of the year 334 B.C. Seven years later he reached India. In the meantime he had destroyed Phoenicia12), the old rival of the Greek merchants. He had conquered Egypt and had been worshipped13) by the people of the Nile valley as the son and heir14) of the Pharaohs15). He had defeated the last Persian king —he had overthrown the Persian empire; he had given orders to rebuild Babylon16)— he had led his troops into the heart of the Himalayan17) mountains and had made the entire world a Macedonian province and dependency18). Then he stopped and announced even more ambitious plans.
　　The newly formed Empire must be brought under the influence of the Greek mind. The people must be taught the Greek language — they must live in cities built after a Greek model. The Alexandrian soldier now turned school-master. The military camps of yesterday became the peaceful centres of the newly imported Greek civilisation. Higher and higher did the flood of Greek manners and Greek customs rise, when suddenly Alexander was stricken with a fever and died in the old palace of King Hammurabi of Babylon in the year 323 B.C..
　　Then the waters receded19). But they left behind the fertile clay of a higher civilisation and Alexander, with all his childish ambitions and his silly vanities20), had performed a most valuable service. His Empire did not long survive21) him. A number of ambitious generals divided the territory among themselves. But they too remained faithful to the dream of a great world brotherhood of Greek and Asiatic ideas and knowledge.
　　They maintained their independence until the Romans added western Asia and Egypt to their other domains22). The strange inheritance23) of this Hellenistic civilisation (part Greek, part Persian, part Egyptian and Babylonian) fell to the Roman conquerors. During the following centuries, it got such a firm hold upon the Roman world, that we feel its influence in our own lives this very day.
　　
　　就在斯巴达和雅典为争夺古希腊领导权而发动的那场灾难性战争刚刚结束时，碰巧是一个聪明绝顶的人 —— 菲利普正统治着马其顿。他崇尚文学艺术中所体现出的古希腊精神，但非常鄙视希腊人在政治事务上缺乏自制力。他看到一个优秀得几乎完美的民族把人力和财力浪费在毫无结果的纷争上，心里颇为恼火。于是，他使自己成为所有希腊人的主人，从而解决了这个难题。而后，他要求他的新子民加入他的远航，去讨伐波斯，以报复薛西斯150年前侵犯希腊人的举动不幸的是，已精心准备的远征还未启程，菲利普就被谋杀身亡。为遭到破坏的雅典复仇的任务就落在了菲利普的儿子亚历山大的肩上。他是希腊最睿智的老师亚里士多德的爱徒。
　　亚历山大于公元前334年春天告别欧洲，7年后到达了印度。在此期间，他摧毁了腓尼基，该国是希腊商人的宿敌。他征服了埃及，尼罗河流域的人们视其为法老的儿子和继承人，对他顶礼膜拜。他战胜了最后一位波斯国王，推翻了波斯帝国，下令重建巴比伦；他带领军队进入喜马拉雅山脉的腹地，使整个世界变成马其顿的一个省和附属地。这时他停止征伐，宣布了更具野心的计划。
　　新成立的帝国必须接受希腊精神的影响。人们必须学习希腊语，他们必须生活在按照希腊模式建立起来的城市里。亚历山大的士兵如今变成了学校教师。昔日的军营变成了新引进的希腊文明的和平中心。就在古希腊礼仪和风俗的潮流愈加高涨之时，亚历山大突然得了热病，于公元前323年死于巴比伦国王汉谟拉比的旧宫殿中。
　　随后这股潮流消退了，但留下了孕育出更高层文明的沃土，亚历山大的雄心壮志虽然幼稚，其虚荣心虽然愚蠢，可他做出了最有价值的贡献。他的帝国在他死后没多久就土崩瓦解。几个野心勃勃的将军瓜分了帝国的领土。但他们也忠实于这个梦想，即建立一个古希腊和亚洲的思想与知识相融合的伟大世界。
　　他们一直保持独立，直至罗马人将西亚和埃及并入他们的领土。这一奇特的古希腊文明遗产(其中含有部分希腊、部分波斯、部分埃及和巴比伦的成分)落入了罗马征服者手中。在此后的数个世纪中，这种文明在罗马世界中确立了不可动摇的地位。时至今日，我们在生活中还能感受到它的影响。
　　
　　Vocabulary
　　
　　1.Hendrik Willem Van Loon: 房龙(1882～1944)，荷兰裔美国作家，被视为20世纪最杰出的科普作家和历史学家。他的目标是向人类的无知和偏执挑战，普及科学真理。他的作品中，精辟的文字与自创的独特插图相得益彰，其中贯穿着理性、宽容和进步的思想。他的著作有《宽容》、《人类的故事》、《圣经的故事》、《伦勃朗的人生苦旅》等。
　　2.Sparta [5spB:tE] n. 斯巴达 (古希腊一奴隶制城邦)
　　3.Athens [5AWInz] n. 雅典(古希腊一奴隶制城邦，著名的文学艺术中心)
　　4.Hellas [5helEs] n. 古希腊
　　5.Macedonia [7mAsI5dEunjE] n. 马其顿王国，古代巴尔干半岛中部一奴隶制国家。在菲利普二世和他的儿子亚历山大大帝统治时期国力强盛(公元前 4世纪），为希腊文明的传播作出了重要的贡献。罗马人于公元前148年把它兼并，变成一个省
　　6.letter [5letE] n. 文学
　　7.despise [dIs5paIz] v. 鄙视，藐视
　　8.irritate [5IrIteIt] v. 激怒，使恼怒
　　9.Persia [5pE:FE] n. 波斯帝国 (公元前6世纪兴起于伊朗高原西部的奴隶制国家)
　　10.avenge [E5vendV] v. 为……报复
　　11.bid farewell to: 向……告别，向……说再见
　　12.Phoenicia [fI5nIFIE, -FjE] n. [史] 腓尼基(地中海东岸的古国，约当今黎巴嫩和叙利亚的沿海一带)
　　13.worship [5wE:FIp] v. 崇拜
　　14.heir [ZE] n. 继承人
　　15.Pharaoh [5fZErEu] n. 法老(古埃及君主称号)
　　16.Babylon [5bAbIlEn] 巴比伦 (古巴比伦王国的首都)，位于幼发拉底河沿岸的美索不达米亚境内，作为首都大约建于公元前1750年，在被亚述人毁灭后(公元前 689年)，又被尼布甲尼撒二世重建于王室显赫之时(公元前 7世纪末)，巴比伦是世界七大奇观之一的空中花园所在地
　　17.Himalayan [7hImE5leIEn] adj. 喜马拉雅山脉的
　　18.dependency [dI5pendEnsI] n. 附属地
　　19.recede [rI5si:d] v. 退，后退
　　20.vanity [5vAnItI] n. 虚荣(心)
　　21.survive [sE5vaIv] v. 比……活得长
　　22.domain [dEu5meIn] n. 领土, 领地
　　23.inheritance [In5herItEns] n. 继承物；遗产
亚历山大大帝
周　宇

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