世界小史 第170期:豪華宮殿

One day a terrible fire broke out in Rome which, burning day and night, consumed house after house, district after district,

當時在羅馬發(fā)生了一場大火，它燒了幾天幾夜，燒毀了一排排房屋、一個個街區(qū)，

and made hundreds of thousands of people homeless – for by then Rome was a huge city with more than a million inhabitants. And what do you think Nero did?

使成千上萬的人淪為無家可歸者，因為羅馬當時就已經(jīng)是一個有100多萬居民的巨大的城市。尼祿這時候在干什么呢?

He stood on the balcony of his sumptuous palace with his lyre and sang a song he had composed about the burning of Troy.

他站在他的豪華宮殿的陽臺上，邊彈古琴邊唱著一首自己創(chuàng)作的歌頌特洛伊大火的歌。

To him this seemed perfect for the occasion.

他覺得這跟當時的情景很相稱。

The people, however, were enraged.

可是這是迄今一直并不十分憎恨他的人民群眾憤怒了，

Until then they had not hated him much because he had always given them splendid festivals and had only been cruel to close friends and acquaintances.

因為他常常讓民眾欣賞美好的慶典，他只對他的親朋好友十分殘忍，

Now the rumor spread that Nero himself had set Rome on fire.

但是現(xiàn)在人們卻在互相傳告：尼祿自己點燃了羅馬的這場大火。

We do not know if it is true.

是否真是這樣，這個人們并不知道。

But in any case Nero knew that people thought he was responsible.

但是，不管怎樣，尼祿知道，人們會相信他干得出這樣事來。

So he looked around for a scapegoat and found one in the Christians.

于是他便尋找一個替罪羊，他找到了基督徒當替罪羊。