Rome History(序)

http://wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/HISTORY.HTM

   Roman history begins in a small village in central Italy; this unassuming (谦逊的，不招摇的) village would grow into a small metropolis (重要城市) , conquer (攻克，征服) and control all of Italy, southern Europe, the Middle East, and Egypt, and find itself, by the start of AD time, the most powerful and largest empire in the world. They managed what no other people had managed before: the ruled the entire world under a single administration for a considerable amount of time. This imperial (帝国的) rule, which extended from Great Britain to Egypt, from Spain to Mesopotamia (美索不达米亚) , was a period of remarkable peace （和平） . The Romans would look to their empire as the instrument that brought law and justice to the rest of the world; in some sense, the relative peace and stability they brought to the world did support this view.

   They were, however, a military (军事的) state, and they ruled over this vast territory (领土，版图) by maintaining a strong military presence in subject (受支配的) countries. An immensely (非常) practical people, the Romans devoted much of their brilliance to military strategy and technology, administration, and law, all in support of the vast world government that they built.

   Rome, however, was responsible for more than just military and administrative genius. Culturally, the Romans had a slight inferiority complex (自卑感) in regards to the Greeks, who had begun their city-states only a few centuries before the rise of the Roman republic. The Romans, however, derived （得到，源于）much of their culture from the Greeks: art, architecture, philosophy, and even religion (宗教) . However, the Romans changed much of this culture, adapting it to their own particular world view and practical needs. It is this changed Greek culture, which we call Graeco-Roman culture (希腊罗马文化), that was handed down to the European civilizations in late antiquity (古代的) and the Renaissance (文艺复兴).

   Our journey through this remarkable history begins with the land itself and the various peoples that inhabited (有人居住的) it. Unlike most of the regions (地区) we've dealt with, Italy was a multicultural landscape (风景，景色) that came to be dominated by this small village, Rome. Each chapter in this history is followed by the title of the next chapter; you can proceed from chapter to chapter in this history by clicking the title that concludes each chapter. Alternatively, you can use the navigation menus in the frames to the left to go back to the contents page and navigate （导航）the chapters as you please.

Richard Hooker