CHAPTER 4 Forms of Government I
第四章 民主意识,这样开始的
THE ANCIENT GREEKS INVENTED THE democratic state. They also invented politics, a word that comes from their word for city, polis. There had long been governments of various sorts; the Greeks invented government by discussion among all citizens and majority voting. Theirs was direct democracy in which all citizens gathered in one place to debate and determine policy. Not all the Greek city-states were democracies, and democracies were always precarious. Of all the little democratic states, we know most about Athens, where democracy survived, with some interruptions, for 170 years. During this time, all the men born in Athens had the right to participate in government, but not women or slaves.
民主国家是古希腊的发明。他们也发明了政治(politics) ；这个词是从希腊词“polis”衍生而来，意为城邦。自古以来，各种形式的政府所在多有，而希腊人发明的政府是以所有公民共同讨论、少数服从多数的投票表决方式为之。这是直接式的民主——所有公民齐聚一堂，进行辩论决定政策。 不过，并不是所有的希腊城邦都奉行民主制度，而即使是雅典的民主也总是险象环生。在所有实施民主的城邦里面，我们对雅典知之最详;它的民主体制虽然有过一些干扰，但也持续了一百七十年之久。这段期间内，所有生于雅典的男性公民对政府事务都有参与权，但女人和奴隶没有。
We call our system democracy but it is very different from Athenian democracy; ours is representative democracy. We are not regularly involved in the process of government. We vote every couple of years; we have the opportunity to complain and stage demonstrations and make submissions, but we do not directly vote on every issue that comes before our representatives.
我们的制度虽然被称为民主政治,不过我们是代议式的民主，和雅典的民主大异其趣。现代的平民百姓并不是时时参与政府的运作，我们每三年或四年投票一次;我们有陈情申诉、游行示威、提案诉愿的机会管道，但对所有送到国会审议的议题并没有直接投票表决的权利。
If the people were directly in charge of our democracy, we know it would be a very different system from what we have. Of course, not all the people could gather in one place but we could reproduce the Greek system if, on every issue, there was a referendum conducted on the internet. With such a system—simple majority rule—we know that there’s a real risk of endangering the rights of minorities and the disadvantaged, with a potentially wide range of consequences. Xenophobic immigration policies might permanently reign; cruel and unusual punishment of criminals might persist; overseas aid might not exist; single parents might struggle to keep any form of government assistance; students would probably struggle to keep their benefits. So you might think it is fair that the ignorance and the prejudice of the people do not have free rein.
如果我们的民主是由人民直接当家做主，可想而知, 这种形式和现在的制度势必大相径庭。当然，要让所有公民齐聚一堂是不可能的，但只要每个议题都经由网络进行全民公投，要在21世纪复制希腊体制并非绝无可能。但如果施行的是那样的直接民主制度，从民调中显示，现在的澳大利亚绝不可能允许其他国家 的移民移入——除了英国人，澳大利亚不会有任何亚裔移民，势必永远是孤悬的罪犯之邦,说不定仍对他们施以鞭刑;海外救援永远不会成立;单亲妈妈们还在为生计苦苦奋战;说不定学生还在为保卫自己的福利抗争。因此，你或许会想，由此看来代议制度也还不错，人民的无知和偏见不至于让国家失序。
If you have come to that position you are now close to the view of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, the great Athenian philosophers, who had severe doubts about Athenian democracy and whose criticisms help us to understand how it operated. They complained that the people were fickle; they were indecisive; they were ignorant; they were easily swayed. Government is a fine art that requires wisdom and judgment, which are not the possession of all citizens. The philosophers would be much happier with our system of representative democracy. No matter what we say about our representatives, they are usually better educated and better informed than the people as a whole. Our politicians are guided by a civil service in which there are very able people. So the people do not rule directly and there is an input from those who are trained and reflective about the whole business of government. But Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle would not call our system democracy.
•民主源自军队
如果你也抱持着这样的立场，那你的看法就跟苏格拉底、柏拉图、亚里士多德很接近了。 这三位希腊大哲学家对雅典的直接民主提出严重质疑，拜他们的批评之赐，我们对它的运作方式有了了解。 他们指出，人是善变无常的、优柔寡断的、浅薄无知的、容易被操弄的，而政治是一种精细的艺术，需要智慧和良好判断，这不是每个公民都拥有的特质。这三位哲人对我们目前的代议式民主应该会欣赏得多。无论我们对现在的民意代表有什么样的不满，相较于全体普罗大众,他们的教育水准还是高些,识见也丰富通晓些。 我们的政治人物是受一套行政体系的引导,这个体系中不乏多位能人贤士。如此,我们的人民并不是直接治理国事，而是借由那些对整体政府事务有丰富经验又有思考能力的人作出一份贡献。只是，苏格拉底、柏拉图、亚里士多德不会把我们的制度称为“民主” 。
The origins of Greek democracy lay in the army. As we examine the different forms of government we will notice a connection between the nature of military power and the nature of the state. In Athens there was no regular full-time army, no “standing army” as the term is—an army in barracks that can be called on to fight at any time. In Athens, all the soldiers were part-time, but rigorously trained to fight on foot in close formation. When war was declared, citizens left their normal business as tradespeople or farmers and constituted the army. The democratic assembly began its life as citizen-soldiers gathered together to get their marching orders from their leaders. The decisions about war or peace and tactics had already been made by the council of elders, the nobility of the tribe. They were then laid before the mass of the soldiers. The aim was to put them in the picture, to psych them up. The assembly of soldiers was not to debate the matter or to propose anything different; they were meant to shout their approval and sing their battle songs.
希腊的民主制度源自军队。如果我们仔细检视不同的政府体制，会发现国家性质和军事力量息息相关。雅典并没有全职的军队，它没有所谓的“现役常备军”体制，没有随时枕戈待命、驻扎在军营里的军队。在雅典，所有的军人都是兼职，但他们会编列队形，接受严格的步兵训练。一旦有战事爆发，这些不管是经商或务农的公民都要放下日常营生，聚合成军。这些平日为民、战时为军的公民集合后,听取统领的行军命令，是为民主集会的滥觞。奋战或求和的决定以及交战的战略战术，先前已由元老会议, 也就是部落的贵族阶级拟好，这时整个摊开在聚集的士兵之前，目的是让他们了解全局，做好心理准备。这些纠集而成的兵团不能就这些事情辩论或提出异议，他们只能高喊同意，齐唱军歌。
Gradually, the assembly gained more power and eventually complete control. We don’t know fully how this came about, but since the state relied on the participation of its citizen-soldiers, and since wars were very regular events, the soldiers were in a strong position. So the democracy began as a solidarity of fighting men. But it was also tribal. There were initially four tribes in Athens and they used to come together to fight as separate tribes. Tribes elected the offices of government, and even when Athens became a more formal democracy and drew up electorates, you remained in your electorate for life, even if you moved to live somewhere else. So geography alone never seemed a strong enough bond; you had a lifelong tie with those you voted with.
慢慢地，军团势力日渐坐大，最后变得全权在握。我们不知道这个过程是如何演变而成，不过既然国家必须依赖这些既是民又是兵的公民参与,而上战场打仗又是家常便饭，这些士兵当然占据了一个强势地位。所以说，希腊民主的发轫是始于军人的团结一致。不过,它的民主也涉及民族元素。雅典原本有四个部落，打仗时通常是以各部落为单位,分别聚集成军，一起出兵。各个部落分别选出政府官员，即使雅典后来变成了比较正式的民主,也划分了选区，但即使你搬到别的地方去住，终生还是原部落的选民。因此，地缘似乎从来不是个强韧的系带，与你终生相系的是跟你一起投票的人。
DIRECT DEMOCRACY REQUIRED a great commitment from the people and a great faith in the people. The ideals of Athenian democracy were set forth by Pericles, the leader of Athens, in a speech he gave at the burial of soldiers killed in a war against Sparta. This “funeral oration” is recorded in The Peloponnesian War by the Athenian author Thucydides, the first historian who attempted to be objective and fairminded. Thucydides’s history was preserved in manuscript at Constantinople. In the Renaissance, 1,800 years after it was written, it reached Italy and was translated into Latin and then into modern European languages. After Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, it is the most famous speech of a politician at a cemetery. Pericles’s speech was much longer than Lincoln’s. These are only extracts:
•不讲人权的高压民主
直接民主需要人民的高度投入,也需要政府对人民深具信心。雅典民主理想的奠定者是雅典的执政者伯里克利(Pericles),他在一场纪念斯巴达战争中牺牲的士兵葬礼上发表演说，揭橥了这些理想。出身雅典的修昔底德 (Thucydides )是史上第一位力图以客观公正写史的作者, 伯里克利的“国殇演说辞"(Funeral Oration)就记载于他的《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》(The Peloponnesian War)中。修昔底德这些亲笔手稿被保存在君士坦丁堡,文艺复兴时期，在 他手书这些史页的一千八百年后，这份手稿抵达了意大利，先被翻译成拉丁文，继而被译成各种现代的欧洲语言。这是政治家最知名的仪典演说,仅次于林肯的“盖兹堡演讲”。伯里克利的演说比林肯长得多。以下是几段节录：
Our constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people. When it is a question of settling private disputes, everyone is equal before the law; when it is a question of putting one person before another in positions of public responsibility, what counts is not membership of a particular class, but the actual ability that the man possesses.
我们所以称为民主政治，是因为这个国家是由全体公民治理，而不是操在少数人手上。在解决私人争端方面，法律之前人人平等；在指派公共职务方面，优先的考量是个人的实际才能，而不是所属的阶层地位。
When our work is over, we are in a position to enjoy all kinds of recreation for our spirits. There are various kinds of contests and sacrifices regularly throughout the year; in our own homes we find a beauty and good taste that delight us every day and that drive away cares.
一日劳作之后，我们有种种娱乐活动，供我们恢复活力。一整年里，我们定期举办竞技会和祭祀节庆；我们家中的布置充满美感与品味，赏心悦目之余也能解忧除虑。
Here each individual is interested not only in his own affairs but in the affairs of the state as well; even those who are mostly occupied with their own business are extremely well informed on general politics—this is a peculiarity of ours: We do not say that a man who takes no interest in politics is a man who minds his own business; we say that he has no business here at all.
在这里，所有公民不只关心私人事务，对国家大事也备极关注；一般公民即使经年累月忙于家计,对政治事务仍然了如指掌。这是我们雅典人与众不同之处——对于不关心公共事务的人，我们不会称他是自扫门前雪，而是视之为无物。
An open, cultivated society with committed, engaged citizens: This is an attractive ideal now to anyone who cares about democracy, even though we know that Athenian leisure and beauty rested on slavery and that sometimes citizens had to be herded into the assembly. However, the positive influence of Pericles’s speech was long delayed. For centuries, the elite of Europe had not only their interests but also their education to warn them against democracy, since most of the classical authors they read were hostile to it. So much so that in the early nineteenth century an English scholar and radical, George Grote, produced a new study of Greece to argue that the democracy and the high culture were interconnected and you could not damn the one and accept the other. This was his contribution to the cause of democracy in England.
开放、文明的社会，热心投入、富使命感的公民，任何关心民主的人都会认为这个理想令人向往，虽然我们知道，雅典人能这样投入休闲娱乐与美学艺术，是归因于它的奴隶制度。公民有钱有闲，才得以经常参加集会。然而，伯里克利这篇演说的正面效应,直到许久之后才发挥出来。数百年间，欧洲精英分子不断提出警告反对民主, 这不只是攸关利益，也是因为他们所受的教育——他们饱读古典诗书,而那些经典的作者对民主多半都抱持反感。 反民主之风如此之深,以至于19世纪初叶一位英国学者乔治•格罗特(George Grote)破釜沉舟,提出一篇全新的希腊研究，指民主政治和精英文化乃唇齿相依,你不可能接受一个而毁弃另一个。这是格罗特对英国民主理想的贡献。
Even to us there are some aspects of Greek democracy that are at odds with our ideals. It was very communal and a touch coercive; there was little sense of individual rights. The privilege of an Athenian citizen was to belong—as Pericles said, if you are not interested in politics you have no business here. Our concern with individual rights has other origins.
即使是现在的我们，也会认为希腊的民主和我们的理想在某些层面不无杆格。它的共治色彩浓厚，带有一丝高压意味，个人人权的观念几近于零。雅典公民的权利是得到归属了-如伯里克利所言，不关心公共事务的人皆 被“视为无物”。可见,我们如今对于人权的关注是根源于别处。
Athens and all the other little Greek states lost their independence when Alexander the Great, the ruler of Macedonia in northern Greece, took them over early in the fourth century BC. Democracy was lost, but not the Greek culture that had flourished in Athens. It spread with Alexander’s empire, which extended throughout the eastern Mediterranean and into the Middle East. What Alexander had made into a Greek world remained so when it was conquered by Rome and became the eastern, Greekspeaking half of its empire.
•有钱人的投票权
公元前4世纪初叶，雅典和希腊所有的小城邦都失去了独立，被归入希腊北方马其顿帝国领袖亚历山大大帝的治下。民主是丧失了，但曾在雅典蓬勃发展的希腊文化并未湮逝。它随着亚历山大帝国的版图扩张,延伸至整个地中海东部，甚至深入中东。亚历山大打造的泛希腊世界依然屹立，因此，当罗马征服了它而将它纳入东罗马帝国的版图,这里有半数的人说的都是希腊语。
When Rome began its expansion, it was a republic but not a democracy. There were popular assemblies that began, like those in the Greek states, as a group of armed men. Every citizen in Rome had to fight and supply their own equipment and weapons. You contributed according to your wealth. If you were rich, you supplied a horse and joined the cavalry, which was a fairly small section of the Roman army. All the rest were foot soldiers but of different grades: The first came fully armed with a sword, a coat of mail, and a shield; the next had less armor; the third had only a spear or a javelin; and the last class of infantry—the poorest people —could afford only a sling, a bit of cloth or leather with which you could hurl a stone.
罗马人开始扩张版图的时候，它的政体是共和而非民主制。一如希腊城邦，他们也有公民大会，大会的缘起也一群武装军人的集会。罗马所有的公民都得打仗，武器装备还得自备。你可以依照你的财富作出贡献。有钱人可自备坐骑加入骑兵部队，这在罗马军里只占了少数，其他的全是步兵，但等级有别:一等兵有全套武装，佩剑、盔甲、护盾一应俱全;次焉者武器装备略逊一筹;第三等的只有一根长矛或一支标枪;最末等的步兵团，也就是最穷的人, 只能分到一个弹弓，外加一块用来包石头的布巾或皮革。
In the early years, the assembly was like an army on a parade ground. Men were drawn up in their different ranks: cavalry, first-class foot soldiers, second, third, fourth, down to the people with slings. The voting took place by groups. So all the cavalry decided their view of the matter by internal discussion; all the first-class infantry decided their view of the matter, and so on. Each group expressed a joint opinion, but their voting power was not equal. There were 193 votes overall, and these were allocated to the groups according to their status. The cavalry and the first-class infantrymen together had 98 votes out of a possible 193 votes, which is a majority, though the bulk of the soldiers were in the lesser groups. If these first two groups agreed, there was no need even to ask the others, and often they were not asked; the horsemen and the first-class soldiers had settled the matter. All men potentially at least participated, but the rich had the predominant voice.
早年的公民大会与阅兵场上的军容阵仗颇为类似。 这些男性公民按照阶级依序排列:骑兵、一等步兵、二等、 三等、四等，最后才是只拥有弹弓的小兵。投票以团体为单位，例如，整个骑兵部队就某个议题先行内部讨论、决定共识,所有的一等兵也是先行讨论、决定看法，依此类推。 每个团体皆可表达他们的共同意见，但投票权不尽相同； 总票数为一百九十三票，以阶级地位为据,分配于这些团 体,其中九十八票属于骑兵和一等步兵，在一百九十三票当中占多数，虽然地位低微的三、四、五等步兵人数最多， 但只要骑兵和一等步兵团同意，根本不用询问其他人的意见就可做决定;实际上也常是如此,骑兵和一等步兵两组人马即可拍板定案。基本上每个男人都有参政权，但有钱人的声音最大。
This assembly elected the Roman consuls, who were the co-presidents of the republic; there were two of them and they could act only if they agreed. The two consuls controlled each other, and their power was further limited by holding office for only one year. Romans identified the years by the persons who had been consuls.
•庶民的叛变
公民大会负责选出罗马的执政官,也就是该共和体制的行政首长。执政官有两位，为了互相牵制，唯有双方意见一致才能行使权力，再加上任期只有一年，更限制了他 们的权力。罗马人计算年份，用的就是卸任执政官的名字。
Gradually, the common people claimed more power for themselves in comparison to the wealthy and the nobles. We do know how this happened—they used their military power to get it. A war would be declared and the common soldiers, ranks three, four, and five, refused to fight. They said we will fight only if you give us more power in the state. They used that threat to obtain a new assembly, one that appointed officers called tribunes, who had power to intervene at any stage in the governmental process if an ordinary person was getting a raw deal. After another refusal to fight, this assembly was given a strong role in lawmaking.
慢慢地，平民开始和贵族及富人对抗,为自己争取更多权力。这个过程如何演变而成我们倒是很清楚——他们运用自己的军事势力遂其所愿。当战事爆发，一般士兵亦即三等、四等及五等兵,全都拒绝去打仗。他们说，除非你让我们在国内拥有更多权力，我们才肯上战场。透过这样的威胁，他们成立了新的平民大会，并任命了一些称为护民官的政务官。如果政府让一般百姓受到不公平待遇， 这些护民官随时有权介入干涉。这个平民大会后来再度拒绝作战,经过又一回合的过招，终于在立法方面拿到了重要角色。
Sometimes these actions are referred to as strikes, which is a poor word for them. Strikes suggest that this process was taking place in the sphere of industrial relations, that working people were being unionized in Rome and were calling strikes against their bosses. It was not like that at all. The common people staged a mutiny. Their opportunity came not out of industrial relations but international relations.
这些威胁行为有人称为“罢工”，不过这个词汇并不贴切。罢工的情境涉及劳资关系，言下之意是罗马的劳工阶级已有工会组织,为对抗资方老板而发动罢工，但当时完全不是这样。这是庶民上演的一场叛变，而他们的机会来自国际情势，而非劳资关系。
As in Athens, citizen-soldiers increased their power, except that in Rome, democracy never fully triumphed. The chief body in Rome remained the Senate, which was composed of members from noble families and later more from wealthy families. The popular assemblies with their increased power put limits on the Senate but did not overawe or supplant it. The Roman constitution changed by the creation of new institutions and shifts in the relations of power, not by revolution and a fresh start. In this, it was followed by the British constitution, which has still not been written down in one document. In its concern to have power dispersed and checked, the Roman constitution was an important model for that of the United States.
就跟雅典一样，这些平日为民战时为军的平民虽然得到了更多权力，但罗马的民主制度从来不曾取得完全的胜利。罗马共和的主体依然是以贵族为组成分子的元老院, 后来更添增了更多的有钱人家。平民大会因为掌握了更多权力而对元老院构成不少限制，但它并没有压制的力量甚或取而代之。罗马的宪法虽有改变，但它是随着权力关系消长而在原有的宪法上做增补,并非借由革命起义而从头制定。英国宪法即是追随它的脚步——英国至今还没有一纸成文宪法。谈到对权力分散和监督的重视,罗马宪法是美国宪法的一个重要典范。
THE ROMANS HAD FIRST BEEN RULED by kings. The republic was only established in about 500 BC when the Romans overthrew the tyrant king, Tarquin the Proud. The Roman historian Livy gives an account of this revolt. His work was preserved in Western Europe after the fall of Rome but some of it had disappeared; only a single copy of one section survived and was not discovered until the sixteenth century, so it remained unknown to Renaissance scholars. The section dealing with the establishment of the republic was known. Shakespeare drew on it for his poem “The Rape of Lucrece.”
•王子的罪行，女子的贞洁
罗马人最初是由君王统治，直到公元前500年左右， 罗马人推翻了暴君“骄傲者塔克文”(Tarquin the Proud), 才开始实施共和政体。罗马史家李维(Titus Livius)记述了这场革命的经过。罗马帝国灭亡后,他的作品被西欧保存下来,不过部分早已佚失，只有某些章节硕果仅存,而这份孤本直到16世纪才被人发掘出来，以至于文艺复兴时期 的学者一直不知有这份记载存在。李维对罗马建立共和的描述至此才得以公之于世，莎士比亚的诗作《鲁克丽丝失贞记》(The Rape of Lucrece)即是取材于它。
It was a rape that sparked the republican revolt. The rapist was not Tarquin himself but his son, Sextus Tarquinius. His victim was Lucretia, the wife of Collatinus. The leader of the revolt that expelled the king was Brutus, who was a nephew of the king. His namesake 400 years later led the plot to assassinate Julius Caesar. The first Brutus had seen many of his family killed by Tarquin the Proud. To survive, Brutus had pretended to be a sort of half-wit, otherwise Tarquin would have done away with him as well. Brutus was being true to his name, which in Latin means “dull-witted.” He made no complaint when Tarquin seized all his property. He was biding his time, and his opportunity came with the rape of Lucretia. This is the story as Livy tells it. It begins when the sons of the king are away from Rome at Ardea fighting a war. Collatinus was drinking with them in their tent when they started to talk about their wives, with each boasting that his wife was the best. Collatinus suggested that they settle the matter by riding back to Rome to check on what their wives were doing. The wives of the princes were found partying, but Lucretia was hard at work, spinning. Collatinus had won the argument. A few days later, Sextus, without Collatinus’s knowledge, returned to visit Lucretia.
这场强暴点燃了共和制的革命之火。施暴者并不是暴君塔克文本人，而是他的儿子塞克斯塔斯(Sextus Tarquinius),受害者鲁克丽丝是暴君国王的另一个儿子格兰提努斯(Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus)的妻子。发动这场革命推翻了王政的领袖叫做布鲁图斯(Lucius Junius Brutus),是国王的侄子;四百年后，一个和他同名的人也发动一场政变，刺杀了恺撒大帝。前面这位布鲁图斯曾经目睹自己的许多家人被塔克文杀害，他为了活命，只好装疯卖傻，否则塔克文早就将他除去了。布鲁图斯人如其名，拉丁文的意思就是“愚钝”。塔克文霸占了他所有的家产，他没有半句怨言，只是静候时机，而鲁克丽丝的受辱给了他最好的机会。 以下是李维笔下述说的故事。 故事从国王的几个儿子离开罗马，来到亚迪亚(Ardea)这个地方打仗写起。格兰提努斯在帐篷里和他们一起喝酒，酒酣耳热之际，大家聊起妻子，个个都夸自己的妻子最为贤德。格兰提努斯于是提议,不妨骑马回罗马看看自己的妻子在做什么，争议自可尘埃落定。结果，几个王妃都在宴客作乐，只有鲁克丽丝辛勤地做着纺织工 作。格兰提努斯胜了这场争辩。几天后，塞克斯塔斯背着格兰提努斯，自个儿又回罗马去找鲁克丽丝。
He was hospitably welcomed in Lucretia’s house and, after supper, escorted, like the honored visitor he was thought to be, to the guest chamber. Here he waited till the house was asleep and then, when all was quiet, he drew his sword and made his way to Lucretia’s room determined to rape her. She was asleep. Laying his left hand on her breast, “Lucretia,” he whispered, “not a sound. I am Sextus Tarquinius, I am armed—if you utter a word I will kill you.” Lucretia opened her eyes in terror; death was imminent, no help at hand. Sextus urged his love, begged her to submit, pleaded, threatened, used every weapon that might conquer a woman’s heart. But all in vain; not even the fear of death could bend her will. “If death will not move you,” Sextus cried, “dishonor shall. I will kill you first, then cut the throat of a slave and lay his naked body by your side. Then everyone will believe that you have been caught in adultery with a servant and paid the price.” Even the most resolute chastity could not have stood against this dreadful threat.
鲁克丽丝在家中热忱地欢迎他，晚餐过后, 还谨遵对待贵客之道，陪他走到客房。他在房里等着，待夜深人静大家都就寝后，他拿出配剑来到鲁克丽丝的闺房，决心要强暴她。鲁克丽丝正在睡梦中，他将左手放在她胸前。“鲁克丽丝，”他轻声唤道，“你别出声。我是塞克斯塔斯。我手上有剑，你一出声我就杀了你。”吓坏了的鲁克丽丝睁开眼睛，死亡就在眼前，她却求助无门。 塞克斯塔斯试图让她就范，他恳求、哀求、威胁, 用尽所有可能征服女人心的武器，却都枉然无效，就连死亡的畏惧也动摇不了她。“如果死亡不能打动你，”塞克斯塔斯恼羞成怒，“失去名节总可以吧。我要先杀了你，然后割断一个奴隶的喉咙，让他赤身裸体躺在你身边，每个人都会以为你跟仆人私通。”再坚定的贞洁也抵挡不住这个可怕的威胁。
Lucretia yielded. Sextus enjoyed her and rode away, proud of his success.
鲁克丽丝还是屈服了，塞克斯塔斯在得逞后，洋洋得意策马而去。
The unhappy girl wrote to her father in Rome and to her husband in Ardea, urging them both to come at once with a trusted friend and quickly, for a frightful thing had happened. Her father came with Valerius, her husband with Brutus, with whom he was returning to Rome when he was met by the messenger. They found Lucretia sitting in her room in deep distress. Tears rose to her eyes as they entered and to her husband’s question, “Is it well with you?” she answered, “No, what can be well with a woman who has lost her honor? In your bed, Collatinus, is the impress of another man. My body only has been violated; my heart is innocent and death will be my witness. Give me your solemn promise that the adulterer shall be punished. He is Sextus Tarquinius. He it is who last night came as my enemy disguised as my guest and took his pleasure of me. That pleasure will be my death—and his too if you are men.”
悲伤的鲁克丽丝写信给她住在罗马的父亲和派驻在亚迪亚的丈夫，请他们各自带着一位信任的朋友立刻前来，因为家中发生了可怕的事。 她父亲带着维拉利（Valerius）,她丈夫则带着布鲁图斯——他正好和布鲁图斯一起返回罗马，结果途中遇到信差。 他们发现鲁克丽丝坐在闺房中，满面哀戚。 他们一进门，她已满眼是泪，而当她的丈夫问: “你还好吗？”她回答：“不好，哪个失去名节的女人会好呢？格兰提努斯，你的床上留有另一个男人的印子。我的身子刚才受了侵犯，但我的心是清白的，死亡可以为我作证。请你立下重誓，务必让奸淫我的人受到惩罚。那人叫做塞克斯塔 斯•塔克文。他实为我的敌人，昨夜却假扮成客人污辱了我。他的得逞代表我之将死——如果你们是男子汉，就得让他也死。”
The promise was given. One after another they tried to comfort her, they told her she was helpless and therefore innocent, that he alone was guilty. It was the mind, they said, that sinned, not the body: Without intention there could never be guilt.
格兰提努斯当场承诺了她。他们轮番抚慰她，告诉她当时她是如此无助，因此是无辜的，有 117 118 罪的只是塞克斯塔斯一人。他们说，有罪的是一个人的心，不是身体;没有意图就没有罪愆可言。
“What is due to him,” Lucretia said, “is for you to decide. As for me, I am innocent of fault but I will take my punishment. Never shall Lucretia provide a precedent for unchaste women to escape what they deserve.” With these words she drew a knife from under her robe, drove it into her heart, and fell forward, dead. Her father and her husband were overwhelmed with grief. While they stood weeping helplessly, Brutus drew the bloody knife from Lucretia’s body and, holding it before him, cried: “By this girl’s blood—none more chaste till a tyrant wronged her—and by the gods I swear that with sword and fire and whatever else can lend strength to my arm, I will pursue Lucius Tarquinius the Proud, his wicked wife, and all his children, and never again will I let them or any other man be king in Rome.”
“他该受到什么报应，”鲁克丽丝说，“我交由你们决定。至于我，虽然失节非我之过，但我要接受自己的惩罚。失贞的女人应该得到什么报应，我绝不会首开避脱的先例。”话声甫落，她便从衣袍中掏出一把刀刺入心脏，应声倒下，就此香销玉殒。她的父亲和丈夫哀恸欲绝。两人只能呆立着无助地哭泣，但布鲁图斯拔出鲁克丽丝胸前染血的刀，举着它高喊：“我要对这位烈女的血发誓:在她被暴君蹭蹋之前，没有人比她更为贞洁，我也对上帝发誓，我要借助刀剑、烈火以及所有能让我更强大的东西，追捕骄傲者塔克文、邪恶的王后及其所有的子女，绝不让他们任何人再登上罗马的王座。”
Brutus was true to his word. So the republic was launched because of an outrageous crime by a prince; because a woman, like a good Roman, valued her honor more highly than her life; and because one man was determined to avenge her. But not everyone in Rome wanted Tarquin off the throne, and there was a conspiracy to bring the king back. When the conspiracy was uncovered, Brutus was one of the first two consuls, the officeholders who had replaced the king. Brutus was sitting in the public assembly, in the seat of judgment, when the names of the conspirators were brought before him. On the list were two of his sons. It was Brutus’s job to pass sentence of punishment on them. People in the crowd yelled out that they did not want his family to be so dishonored; that he could pardon his sons. But Brutus would not hear of it; the same rule was going to apply to his sons as to everyone else. So while Brutus watched, his sons were stripped naked, flogged, and then beheaded. He did not flinch. Such was his devotion to the republic.
布鲁图斯说到做到。因此，罗马共和政体的开启，是因为一位王子令人发指的罪行;是因为一个谨遵古罗马美德，视名节比生命更重要的女人;是因为一个男人要为她复仇的决心。不过，罗马城里并不是所有人都想摘掉塔克文的王 冠,有人密谋复辟，结果事迹败露。当时布鲁图斯是两位执政官中的一人，也就是取代国王的双首长之一。布鲁图斯正坐在公众会堂耶和华事审判，当密谋复辟者的名单在他面前摊开时，其中两人赫然是他的儿子。旁观的群众高喊,要他赦免自己的儿子，但布鲁图斯充耳不闻;他说，儿子犯法，与所有人同罪。他亲眼看着两个儿子衣服被剥光，受到鞭笞后斩首处决。他毫无豫色，他对这个共和体制是这样的执著。
pic. Jacques-Louis David, The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of His Sons, 1789.
The Romans of course praised Brutus; this is the very essence of devotion to the republic: that you will put all personal and private ties aside and serve the public good. This is what the Romans called virtus, republican virtue, necessary if the republic was to survive without the tie of allegiance to a king. You might think that Brutus was inhuman; how could he sit there and have that done to his own children? This republican virtue created monsters.
•共和体制的怪物:大义灭亲
罗马人对布鲁图斯自然赞佩有加;要谈对共和制度的投入，这是最精髓的展现:你必须将所有的私人束缚、个人包袱置之度外，全心全意只以公众利益为念。罗马人称之为“virtus”，意思是共和国美德——如今已无需服从王命的捆绑，共和体制要存续下去,共和国美德实属必要。你或许会认为布鲁图斯简直不是人，怎么忍心坐视自己的亲生骨肉遭受这样的酷刑？这种共和国美德创造了怪物。
Strangely, just before the revolution in France, there was a cult of admiration for republican Rome—and not just among those who wanted to reform the monarchy. The court painter to Louis XVI, Jacques-Louis David, took as his subjects two famous episodes from Livy. In the first, he depicted Brutus not in the judgment seat condemning his sons, but at home when the decapitated bodies were brought in. This allowed David to contrast the unmoved, implacable father staring straight ahead with the weakness of women, the mother and sisters of the deceased, who are weeping over their loss. David’s second tribute to republican virtue was the painting called The Oath of the Horatii.
奇怪的是，在法国大革命前夕，社会对罗马的共和之制有种近乎狂热的推崇，而且不只是那些想要改革君主专制的人。路易十六的宫廷画家雅克-路易大卫（Jacques- Louis David）以李维述说的两个知名故事为题，画出了个中人物。第一幅画，他描绘的布鲁图斯不是坐在法庭上谴罚儿子,而是在家中看着遭斩首的儿子的遗体被抬进来。这位大义灭亲、毫不宽贷的父亲直视前方，雅克-路易大卫借着此情此景，让他和那些因丧子丧夫而痛苦哭泣的女人形成对比。大卫对共和国美德的第二幅颂扬之作是《荷瑞希兄弟之誓》(The Oath of the Horatii) 。
The Horatii were the three sons of Horatius who were chosen to fight as champions of Rome when Rome and one of its enemies resolved not to fight in battle but to allow their dispute to be settled by three men from each side fighting each other. David, in his painting, shows the father swearing his sons to their allegiance to Rome. They are placing their hands on their swords and raising their arms in the republican salute, which took the same form as the Nazi salute. The women—the mother and the sisters of the soldiers—again display their human weakness by weeping as the young men depart. One sister is particularly distressed because she is engaged to one of the champions who is going to fight for the other side.
话说罗马与敌人起了纷争, 双方做出不开战火的协定,只由各方派出三人竞武，依胜负结果解决争端。荷瑞希三兄弟是代表罗马前去较量的主将。在大卫这幅画作里,兄弟三人正在老父面前宣誓捍卫罗马的前途,三人将手放在自己的佩剑上，高举手臂行共和国的致敬礼——很像纳粹的行礼动作。画中的女人,这几位勇士的母亲和妹妹，再度流露出人性的脆弱,在男人即将远行之际悲伤哭泣。他们的妹妹尤其悲伤，因为她已与敌方的一位竞武代表订下了婚约。
It was a ferocious, terrifying battle, a battle to the death, wonderfully described by Livy. Only one man survives, one of the sons of Horatius, so Rome has won. The victor comes home and finds his sister crying because her fiancé is dead, killed by her brother. The brother takes out his sword and runs it through his sister; kills her, for weeping when she should have been rejoicing at his own and Rome’s success. Again the message is that family has to be sacrificed in the service of the state. The brother is put on trial but is quickly found to be not guilty. The father turns up at the trial, criticizes his daughter, and so helps to free his son.
这是一场惨烈、恐怖的殊死战，罗马史家李维笔下描述得丝丝入扣。结果只有一人活着归来,是荷瑞希家的兄弟之一,胜利因此归于罗马。胜利者回到家来，发现妹妹正在悲泣,因为她的未婚夫已被自己的兄弟杀死了。胜利者立刻取出佩剑，刺死了自己的亲妹妹,因为她在应该为罗马的胜利欢庆之际却在哀泣。这幅画传递的是同样的信息:为了国家,家族必须做出牺牲。这个兄弟因刺死自己的妹妹被带上法庭接受审判，但随即获得无罪的判决，因为荷家的父亲现身法庭，批评自己女儿的不是，对儿子的获释功不可没。
pics. Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1784.
THE ROMAN REPUBLIC LASTED for a couple of hundred years and then it began to fall into disorder. Rome had expanded; its great generals, who had made its conquests, became rivals and began to fight each other. Their soldiers were loyal to them rather than to the republic. One great general emerged and conquered all the others: Julius Caesar. The second Brutus organized the assassination of Caesar to save the republic from one-man rule, but that deed simply led to another round of civil wars between Brutus and his fellow conspirators on one side and the friends of Caesar on the other. One man emerged victorious: Caesar’s grandnephew and adopted son, who in 27 BC made himself into Rome’s first emperor under the name Augustus.
•第一公民奥古斯都
在陷入混乱失序之前，罗马共和国延续了数百年之久。 这期间罗马不断扩张，几个南征北讨立下汗马功劳的大将军开始内斗，反目成仇。他们的下属对主子忠心耿耿,对共和国则不尽然。其中一名大将趁势崛起,征服了其他人，这人叫做盖乌斯•尤利乌斯•恺撒(Gaius Julius Caesar) 。为了 挽救共和以免沦为政治一言堂,前面提过的第二个布鲁图斯策划暗杀了恺撒,但此举反而引发了另一回合的大小内战; 一边是布鲁图斯和他的密谋同伙，一边是恺撒的亲朋好友, 双方互斗不休。最后，恺撒的养子屋大维(Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus)战胜群雄脱颖而出，于公元前27年以奥古斯都(Augustus)的称号，成为罗马帝国的第一任皇帝。
Augustus was very astute. He kept the republican institutions; the assemblies still met and consuls were still elected. He called himself not “emperor” but “first citizen.” He saw his job as a sort of facilitator, or he pretended he was a facilitator, just helping the machinery work properly. There was no great pomp; he did not have a great escort; he walked around Rome like an ordinary citizen without a bodyguard; he went into the Senate, which was still meeting, and listened to the debates; he was personally very accessible. The form of greeting and the way you showed your allegiance remained the raised-arm salute. When you came into Augustus’s presence. you did not have to bow or show any deference; you and the emperor saluted each other.
奥古斯都非常精明能干。他保留共和体制:公民大会照旧，执政官依然民选。他不把自己叫做皇帝，而以“第一公民”自称。他认为自己的职务是推动者，或者说他扮演了推动者的角色,推动这个国家机器做适当的运转。他朴实无华，没有一堆扈从前呼后拥，时常连个贴身护卫都不带就漫步街头,与平民百姓无异;他会在元老院开会期间走进会堂, 细听立法诸公进行辩论;他的个性平易，人人都能亲近。当时大家打招呼以及表示顺从的姿势依旧是高举手臂为礼。 当你来到奥古斯都面前，你不必躬身或做出屈从的表示，只要跟这位皇帝互行招呼礼就好。
pics. Augustus became Rome’s first emperor in 27 BC.
Augustus tried to revive the old Roman virtues. He thought Rome had been undermined by luxury and decadence; he wanted to restore, as we would say, family values. He banished the poet Ovid for writing that women who had children were no longer so beautiful. He was critical of Livy, the historian, who was writing at this time, because he did not like some of what Livy had written about the disputes in Rome’s recent past, but he was with Livy on the Roman virtues: noble conduct and devotion to the state. But one Roman practice he could not revive. Rome now had an empire that Augustus stabilized and ruled well but with the help, not of part-time citizen-soldiers, but of a paid standing army.
奥古斯都试图重建罗马美德。他认为罗马走向衰微是因为奢华堕落，他要重新塑造我们当今所称的家庭价值。他驱逐了一位叫做奥维德(Ovid)的诗人，因为这位诗人写道: 生育过的女人不再美丽。他对当时正在写史的李维也颇有微词，因为他不喜欢李维将罗马近代的诸多纷争记录下来, 不过关于罗马的美德——高尚行止和爱国情操，他和李维却站在同一边。然而，有个罗马旧风是他无从恢复的,虽然罗马现在是个由奥古斯都安定统治的帝国，但他的助力并非来自军民两兼的公民,而是一支领薪的常备军队。
For two centuries the empire enjoyed peace. Over its vast area, Roman law and Roman order prevailed. In form, the empire was still a republic: Emperors did not become like kings, whose heirs would be kings after them. The emperor chose a successor, who might or might not be a relative, and the Senate would approve the choice. Later there would be bloody conflicts between rival claimants, but for two centuries emperors mostly chose well and their choice was accepted.
•西罗马帝国是如何灭亡的?
这个帝国享受了两百年的承平岁月。在它辽阔的疆土上，罗马政令通行无碍，社会秩序井然。形式上，罗马依然是个共和国:皇帝并没有变成世袭——将王位传给自己的子嗣。继任者是由皇帝遴选，有无血脉关联皆可，再由元老院同意通过。尔后虽因争夺继承权而有血腥冲突爆发,不过在此之前的两个世纪，在位的皇帝大多能做出良好的选择，人选也都被和平接受。
Then in the third century AD came the first wave of German invasions, which nearly brought the empire down. After the invasions had passed, the empire was reconstructed on new lines by two emperors, Diocletian and Constantine. To shore up the empire’s defenses, they enlarged and reorganized the army, recruiting many of the Germans who had settled within the borders. To pay for a larger army, the emperors had to raise taxes. To ensure that people paid their taxes, they had to have a more accurate registration of the population. So the bureaucracy grew and the bureaucrats became the direct rulers of the empire. In earlier times, the different regions were allowed to run themselves so long as peace was kept and taxes paid.
公元3世纪,第一波日耳曼蛮族人侵，整个帝国几乎被夷为平地。浩劫过后，因着戴克里先(Diocletian)和君士坦丁这两位皇帝，罗马帝国重续了新的命脉。为了稳固国防, 这两位君主扩大军队编制，把许多定居于境内的日耳曼人网罗进来;为了养活扩增的军队，皇帝不得不增加税负;为了确保人民缴税,他们不得不实施更精确的人口登记，如此这般, 官僚体系更加叠床架屋,而那些官僚就成了直接的统治者。初始的时候,为了维系和平，也为了拿到税金,他们允许不同的区域进行自治。
Diocletian attempted to control inflation by making death the punishment for raising prices. Taxes went up to pay for a larger army, but if you were in business you were not allowed to raise your prices to help pay for the taxes. So you might think it is not worth being in business anymore. Diocletian had an answer for that: You were obliged to stay in your business and your son had to carry on the business after you. The emperors were now desperate; they were not ruling a society but coercing it. A society governed in this way did not have the resilience or morale to resist the next wave of invasions.
戴克里先为了控制通货膨胀，下令将哄抬物价的人处以死刑。为了养活日益扩充的军队,税负越来越重，但如果你是商人，却不准提高售价来筹措缴税的钱。所以，你或许会想，那干脆弃商退出也罢。对此戴克里先也有对策:你不但得继续经商，你的儿子还得继承父业。这些皇帝简直是狗急跳墙，他们不是在治理社会，而是欺压人民。一个社会受到如此统治，哪有余力甚或士气去抵挡下一波的外敌入侵？
Constantine’s official support for Christianity in 313 was part of the attempt to strengthen the empire. The strength he sought did not lie in the church as an organization; Christianity had grown but it was still a minority faith. Constantine, like many of his subjects, was losing faith in the old Roman gods, and he came to believe that the Christian god would best protect him and the empire. At first, he had only the vaguest idea of what being a Christian entailed, but he thought that if he supported the Christians then their god would favor him.
公元313年,君士坦丁大帝正式表态支持基督教，部分原因是想为他的帝国增添力量。他所寻求的力量并不是来自教会这个组织——当时的基督教虽有成长,但依然是少数人的信仰。就像他许多的臣民,君士坦丁对古老的罗马神明已经丧失信心，他慢慢相信，最能保护他和这个帝国的是基督教的上帝。一开始，他对身为基督徒的义务仅有最模糊的概念，但他认为,只要支持基督教徒，他们的神就会恩赐于他。
Diocletian, Constantine, and the later emperors became increasingly remote. They began to imitate the Persian emperors and to present themselves as godlike figures. They stayed in their palaces; they were never seen walking around their cities as Augustus had. Before you went in to visit them, you were frisked. You were taken blindfolded through a great labyrinth of passages so you would never know your way in again, in case you had it in mind to assassinate the emperor. When finally you got to see the emperor, you had to prostrate yourself; that is, you lay flat on the floor before the throne.
戴克里先、君士坦丁和之后的几个皇帝越来越荒腔走板。他们开始模仿波斯皇帝，装扮成神的模样现身。他们长年居于深宫,不曾有人见过他们像奥古斯都那样，在城里任意游走。你要去谒见他们，必须先被搜身,然后蒙上眼罩，穿过迷宫似的巨大通道，目的是让你难辨南北西东，以防你心怀不轨图谋暗杀皇帝。等你终于见到皇帝的庐山真面目，你还得拜倒在王座之前，也就是整个人趴伏在地。
As Rome exerted tighter control, its subjects sought ways to escape. The great landowners, not wanting to pay tax themselves, became islands of resistance, protecting also the people who worked their lands. In the early years of the empire, these were slaves. When the supply of slaves dried up—because Rome’s conquests had ceased—the landowners divided up their lands and rented them out to slaves, ex-slaves, and free men who sought their protection. Though the landowners resented (and avoided) paying taxes to the later emperors, they embraced the emperors’ new laws that people had to stay where they were and that any tenant seeking to move could be chained up. The tenants of different origins were coming to assume the same status—they were becoming what were known in the Middle Ages as serfs. They were not owned like slaves, and they had their own plot of ground and a family, but they could not leave and were bound to work for and support their lord.
随着皇帝的钳制越来越紧，罗马的子民开始想办法脱逃。那些大地主自己也不想付税，摇身成为反抗的据点，兼而保护在他们土地上做工的人。在罗马帝国初期，这些工人都是奴隶身份，后来奴隶的来源日渐枯竭，因为罗马停止了征伐,地主就把田地分租给他人去耕种，这些人有些依然是奴隶,有些过去当过奴隶,也有的是寻求地主庇护的自由民。地主虽然痛恨（也极力避免）缴税给后来的皇帝,但对皇帝颁布的新律法却是举双手赞成:人民必须留在原地，任何佃农想要迁居都会被拘捕系狱。渐渐地，原本来自不同源头的佃农都沦落到相同的地位——在中世纪，他们被称为农奴，他们不像奴隶那样被人拥有，他们自己有田地和家庭,可是终生不得离开,还得做牛做马供养地主。
Medieval society was taking shape before AD 476, the date we give for the fall of the empire in the west. There were already great landowners living in fortified houses, the masters and protectors of the people who worked their lands. The societies that replaced the empire in the west were to be held together by personal allegiance, not allegiance to the state, whether republic or empire. But Roman rule had a continuous afterlife in the memory of Europe.
我们把公元476年定为西罗马帝国灭亡之年，在此之前，中世纪的社会形态已慢慢成形。当时已有大地主产生, 他们住在高墙深沟环绕的宅邸里,既是发号施令的主子，也是这块土地上工作者的保护人。这些将个人服从而非对国家（不管是共和或君主政体）的服从作为维系力量的小社会，就此取代了西罗马帝国。但罗马的统治，始终余波荡漾在欧洲人的记忆里。
