美国学生人类历史第52期:古希腊人的生活(1)-英语课

时间：2019-02-21 作者：英语课 分类：美国学生人类历史

英语课

　　Chapter 16

　　第十六章
　　Greek life
　　古希腊人的生活
　　How the Greeks Lived
　　古希腊人是怎样生活的
　　But how, you will ask, did the ancient Greeks have time to look after their families and their business if they were forever running to the marketplace to discuss affairs of state? In this chapter I shall tell you.
　　我想你们会问，如果古希腊人总是一听到召唤，就赶去集市讨论城邦的事务，他们怎会有时间来照顾家庭和自己的生意？在这一章，我会给你们解释这个问题。
　　In all matters of government, the Greek democracy recognised only one class of citizens-the freemen. Every Greek city was composed of a small number of free born citizens, a large number of slaves and a sprinkling of foreigners.
　　对于政府的所有事务，希腊的民主制度只承认一类市民拥有参与的权利，那就是自由民。而每一个希腊城市都是由少数生来自由的市民、大量的奴隶和零星的外国人组成的。
　　At rare intervals 1 (usually during a war, when men were needed for the army) the Greeks showed themselves willing to confer the rights of citizenship 2 upon the "barbarians 3" as they called the foreigners. But this was an exception. Citizenship was a matter of birth. You were an Athenian because your father and your grandfather had been Athenians before you. But however great your merits as a trader or a soldier, if you were born of non-Athenian parents, you remained a "foreigner" until the end of time.
　　只在少数时候（通常是发生战争，需要征召兵员时），希腊人才愿意给予他们所谓的"野蛮人"即外国人以公民权。但这种情形纯属例外。公民资格是一个出身问题。你是一个雅典人，因为你的父亲和祖父在你之前就是雅典人。除此而外，无论你是一个多么出色的士兵或商人，只要你的父母不是雅典人，你终其一生都只能是住在雅典的"外国人"。
　　The Greek city, therefore, whenever it was not ruled by a king or a tyrant 4, was run by and for the freemen, and this would not have been possible without a large army of slaves who outnumbered the free citizens at the rate of six or five to one and who performed those tasks to which we modern people must devote most of our time and energy if we wish to provide for our families and pay the rent of our apartments.
　　因此，只要不是由一位"国王"或"暴君"统治时，希腊的各个城市便归这个自由民阶层管理，并为其利益服务。这种体制，如果离开了一个数量六、七倍于自由民的奴隶阶层，根本就无法运转。奴隶为有幸成为自由民的古希腊主人承担了种种繁重劳动，而现代人却不得不为这些养家糊口的工作，付出他们大部分的时间与精力。