美国学生人类历史第45期:古希腊城邦(2)

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　　"那很好啊，"你会说，"注重适度与完美当然是一种优秀的德性。可是为什么在古代只有古希腊人一个民族发展了这种素质呢？"作为对你问题的回答，我必须讲一讲古希腊人的生活状态。

　　The people of Egypt or Mesopotamia had been the "subjects" of a mysterious Supreme³ Ruler who lived miles and miles away in a dark palace and who was rarely seen by the masses of the population. The Greeks on the other hand, were "free citizens" of a hundred independent little "cities"the largest of which counted fewer inhabitants than a large modern village. When a peasant who lived in Ur said that he was a Babylonian he meant that he was one of millions of other people who paid tribute⁴ to the king who at that particular moment happened to be master of western Asia. But when a Greek said proudly that he was an Athenian or a Theban he spoke⁵ of a small town, which was both his home and his country and which recognised no master but the will of the people in the market-place.

　　在埃及或者美索不达米亚，人们仅仅是一个神秘莫测的最高统治者的"臣民"。这位统治者住在遥远的宫廷里面，统治着他庞大的帝国。他的绝大部分臣民一生都未见过他一面。可希腊人正好相反：他们是分属数百个小型"城邦"的"自由 公民"。这些城邦中最大的，其人口也超不过一个现代的大型村庄。当一个住在乌尔的农民说自己是巴比伦人时，他的意思是，他属于数百万向当时正好是西亚统治者的国王纳税进贡的大众之一。可当一个希腊人自豪地称自己是雅典人或底比斯"人，他谈到的是那个既是他的家园又是他的国家的小城镇。那里不承认有什么最高的统治者，一切由集市上的人们说了算。

　　To the Greek, his fatherland was the place where he was born; where he had spent his earliest years playing hide and seek amidst the forbidden rocks of the Acropolis; where he had grown into manhood with a thousand other boys and girls, whose nicknames⁶ were as familiar to him as those of your own schoolmates. His Fatherland was the holy soil where his father and mother lay buried.

　　对希腊人来说，祖国就是他出生的地方，是他在雅典卫城的石墙间玩捉迷藏游戏而度过童年的地方，是他与许多男孩女孩一起长大成人 的地方。他对他们每一个人的熟悉就如同你知道班级里所有同学的绰号一样。他的祖国是他的父母亲埋骨于此的圣洁土壤。

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