2019-03-22

CHAPTER ONE: Plato I. The Context（背景） of Plato

If you look at a map of Europe you will observe（发现） that Greece is a skeleton-like hand stretching its crooked fingers out （把弯曲的手指伸出来）into the Mediterranean Sea.

South of it lies the great island of Crete, from which those grasping fingers captured, in the second millennium（千年） before Christ, the beginnings of civilization and culture.

To the east, across the Ægean Sea（爱情海）, lies Asia Minor（小亚细亚）, quiet and apathetic now, （插入语，用于悬停句子）but throbbing（生机勃勃的，跟插入语部分形成对应）, in pre-Platonic days, with（和前文的throb搭配，表示“在什么方面生机勃勃”） industry, commerce and speculation.

To the west, across the Ionian（爱奥尼亚）, Italy stands, like a leaning tower（我们觉得意大利像靴子，这里却说像斜塔，这是不是文化的差异？） in the sea, and Sicily and Spain, each in those days with thriving Greek colonies; and at the end, the "Pillars of Hercules（希腊神话中的大力神）" (which we call Gibraltar（直布罗陀）), that sombre portal through which not many an ancient mariner dared to pass.

And on the north those still untamed（没有被驯服的） and half-barbaric regions, then named Thessaly and Epirus and Macedonia（马其顿）, from which or through which the vigorous（有生命活力的） bands（一群人） had come which fathered（繁衍） the geniuses of Homeric（荷马史诗） and Periclean Greece.

Look again at the map, and you see countless indentations（缩进） of coast and elevations（隆起的部分） of land; everywhere gulfs（大海湾） and bays（小海湾） and the intrusive sea; and all the earth tumbled and tossed into mountains and hills.

Greece was broken into isolated fragments by these natural barriers of sea and soil; travel and communication were far more difficult and dangerous then than now; every valley therefore developed its own self-sufficient economic life, its own sovereign government, its own institutions and dialect and religion and culture.

In each case one or two cities, and around them, stretching up the mountainslopes, an agricultural hinterland（内陆）: such were the "city-states（城邦）" of Eubœa, and Locris, and Ætolia, and Phocis, and Bœotia, and Achæa, and Argolis, and Elis, and Arcadia（除了是城邦的名字，还可以翻译成桃花源）, and Messenia, and Laconia—with its Sparta（斯巴达）, and Attica（站在高山上的城）—with its Athens（雅典）.

Look at the map a last time, and observe the position of Athens: it is the farthest east of the larger cities of Greece.

It was favorably placed to be the door through which the Greeks passed out to the busy cities of Asia Minor, and through which those elder cities sent their luxuries and their culture to adolescent（希腊在现在的我们看来是古文化，但在当时来讲，仍然处于文化发展的青春期） Greece.

It had an admirable port, Piræus, where countless vessels might find a haven（避风的港湾） from the rough waters of the sea. And it had a great maritime fleet.

In 490–470 B.C. Sparta and Athens, forgetting their jealousies and joining their forces, fought off the effort of the Persians（波斯的） under Darius and Xerxes to turn Greece into a colony of an Asiatic empire.

In this struggle of youthful Europe against the senile East, Sparta provided the army and Athens the navy.

The war over, Sparta demobilized（解散） her troops, and suffered the economic disturbances natural to that process; while Athens turned her navy into a merchant fleet, and became one of the greatest trading cities of the ancient world.

Sparta relapsed into agricultural seclusion（遁世） and stagnation（停滞）, while Athens became a busy mart and port, the meeting place of many races of men and of diverse cults（宗教） and customs, whose contact and rivalry begot（beget 导致） comparison, analysis and thought（比较，分析和思考都是哲学的种子）.