V. M. Hillyer

——V. M. 希利爾（仲秋 譯）

Nero was one of the worst rulers Rome ever had and one of the worst builders. He built himself an enormous palace surrounded by parks and lakes. It was called the Golden House. Later rulers destroyed it. He built a colossal statue of himself which some writers say was 120 feet high. Only its base still exists.

Near where the colossal statue of Nero was， a huge amphitheater was built later and it was called the Colosseum. An amphitheater was something like a football stadium， but instead of games， there were fights held between men and men， or between men and wild animals. The Colosseum had stone seats arranged in an oval shape. The outside walls were four stories high; the lower three stories were rows of arches. Between the arches on the first or ground floor there were engaged Doric columns. Between the arches of the second story were engaged Ionic columns. Between those of the third floor were engaged Corinthian， and on the fourth-story wall were Composite pilasters.

尼祿是古羅馬帝國(guó)歷史上公認(rèn)的暴君之一，還是最糟糕的建筑師之一。他曾經(jīng)為自己修建了一座四周有公園和湖泊的大宮殿，被稱(chēng)為“黃金宮殿”，不過(guò)被后來(lái)的羅馬帝國(guó)統(tǒng)治者摧毀了。尼祿還為自己建過(guò)一座高達(dá)120英尺（差不多36米高）的巨型雕像，如今只剩下一個(gè)底座了。

距離當(dāng)時(shí)尼祿雕像不遠(yuǎn)的地方，后來(lái)又修建了一個(gè)大型露天競(jìng)技場(chǎng)，名叫“古羅馬圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)”。這個(gè)圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)看上去和足球場(chǎng)差不多大，但卻不是用來(lái)進(jìn)行體育比賽的。這個(gè)競(jìng)技場(chǎng)進(jìn)行的是人與人之間，或者是人與野獸之間的搏斗。圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)里面，石板座位的排列呈橢圓形的階梯狀；從外面看，墻壁共有四層，下面的三層都設(shè)計(jì)有拱門(mén)。第一層的拱門(mén)之間使用了多立克柱式，第二層的拱門(mén)之間運(yùn)用的是伊奧尼亞柱式，第三層運(yùn)用的是科林斯柱式，第四層運(yùn)用了混合柱式的半露柱。

The Colosseum is now a ruin， but a great part of it is still standing. The amphitheater held as many people as a large stadium does today， but there was a still larger one called the Circus Maximus which held as many people as the largest stadium today holds. Most of the huge Circus Maximus has completely disappeared but some of its foundations still remain.

The Romans built public bath houses， for the common people had no baths at all in their homes. These baths were huge buildings with arched or vaulted rooms in which a thousand or more people could bathe at one time. There were not only hot and cold and warm baths， but gymnasiums， game rooms， and lounging rooms， and so on. They were public places for amusement and recreation.

古羅馬圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)已經(jīng)廢棄，但是建筑中的大部分還完好地保存著，跟今天的大型足球場(chǎng)一樣，可以容納大量的觀眾。不過(guò)，當(dāng)時(shí)還有一個(gè)比古羅馬圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)還要大的競(jìng)技場(chǎng)，叫“馬克西穆斯圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)”，觀眾容納量幾乎可以和今天最大的體育競(jìng)技場(chǎng)相媲美。如今，這個(gè)競(jìng)技場(chǎng)的大部分遺址早已不在了，只剩下一小部分地基。

古羅馬人還修建了不少公共浴場(chǎng)，這是因?yàn)楣帕_馬的普通居民家里并不設(shè)浴室。古羅馬人修建的公共浴場(chǎng)是有拱門(mén)和圓頂大廳的巨型建筑，可以同時(shí)供一千多人洗澡。公共浴場(chǎng)里不僅有熱水浴室、冷水浴室、溫水浴室，還有健身房、游戲室、休息室等功能區(qū)域。所以公共浴場(chǎng)也是古羅馬人休閑娛樂(lè)的地方。

The Romans built large arches， separate from buildings， just for their rulers who had won great battles to march through with their soldiers. Such arches were called Triumphal Arches. One， called the Arch of Titus， was built to celebrate his conquest of the city of Jerusalem. The Arch of Titus has one large single arch.

Another arch， the Arch of Constantine， was built in honor of that ruler who was the first emperor of Rome to become a Christian. The Arch of Constantine has one large and two smaller arches， one at each side. You can see the Colosseum in the background of both pictures.

The bridges the Romans built were among the strongest and most substantial structures they made. Some of these bridges were built， not for people to walk across， but for water to run through. On the top of such a bridge was a trough through which water flowed from its source to the city. It was like a river held up by a bridge. Such a bridge carrying water was called an aqueduct which means water pipe or water carrier.

古羅馬人修建的大型拱門(mén)，有的并不是用于房屋，而是專(zhuān)門(mén)用來(lái)迎接戰(zhàn)場(chǎng)上凱旋的君王和他的部隊(duì)，因此這些拱門(mén)被稱(chēng)作“凱旋門(mén)”。其中一座凱旋門(mén)的名稱(chēng)是“提圖斯凱旋門(mén)”， 它是為了慶祝提圖斯國(guó)王占領(lǐng)耶路撒冷城而專(zhuān)門(mén)修建的，提圖斯凱旋門(mén)是一座單獨(dú)的大拱門(mén)。

還有另一座凱旋門(mén)叫作“君士坦丁凱旋門(mén)”，這座凱旋門(mén)由中間一個(gè)大拱門(mén)和兩旁各一個(gè)小拱門(mén)組成。它是用來(lái)紀(jì)念羅馬首位基督徒帝王君士坦丁大帝。在這兩幅圖片的背景中，你都可以看到古羅馬圓形競(jìng)技場(chǎng)。

古羅馬人建的橋梁是他們建造得最牢固、用料最足的建筑。有些橋梁并不是用來(lái)供人通行，而是讓水流淌的水路。這類(lèi)橋梁的橋頂設(shè)有一個(gè)水槽，水可以經(jīng)由橋頂?shù)乃蹚乃吹亓魅氤莾?nèi)，看起來(lái)就像是被橋梁架起來(lái)的河流。這種引水用的橋梁稱(chēng)為“高架引水渠”，它的功能就相當(dāng)于水管或者水渠。

Nowadays， water is brought to a city ?through large pipes which may run underground and up and down the hill. But the Romans built aqueducts instead of pipes to carry water to a city， and these aqueducts—some of them over fifty miles long—sloped just enough so that the water was always running down hill.

The Romans made another kind of building from which later Christian churches were copied. These buildings were courthouses or public halls and were called basilicas. Basilicas were long buildings with rows of columns on the inside which held up the roof. There was a center aisle and two side aisles and the roof over the center aisle was higher than the roof over the side aisles， as in the case in most of our churches today.

今天，我們一般用埋在地下或者鋪在山間的水管來(lái)向城區(qū)供水。古羅馬人修建的高架引水渠替代了水管，有些高架引水渠超過(guò)50英里（約80千米長(zhǎng)）。高架引水渠都設(shè)計(jì)有一定的坡度，可以讓水持續(xù)不斷地沿著渠道從山上流下來(lái)。

基督教教堂的建筑設(shè)計(jì)師常常借鑒另一種著名的古羅馬建筑，這種古羅馬建筑就是巴西利卡會(huì)堂。巴西利卡會(huì)堂通常被古羅馬人用來(lái)做法院或者公共大廳。巴西利卡會(huì)堂很長(zhǎng)，里面有支撐屋頂?shù)膸着攀?，另外還有一條中央長(zhǎng)廊和兩條側(cè)廊。中央長(zhǎng)廊上的天花板設(shè)計(jì)比側(cè)廊上方的天花板要高出不少。直到今天，許多教堂也采用這種建筑方式。

Word Study

statue /'st?t?u?/ n. 雕塑，雕像

arch /ɑ?t?/ n. 拱；拱門(mén)

foundation /fa?n'de??n/ n. 地基；房基

march /mɑ?t?/ v. 齊步走；行進(jìn)

Soldiers were marching up and down outside the government buildings.

flow /fl??/ v. 流；流動(dòng)

It’s here that the river flows down into the ocean.

aisle /a?l/ n. 走道，過(guò)道