世界小史 第156期:普通城市居民
As you can imagine, many tried. If two rivals fought for power,
你可以想象，許多人都做過這樣的嘗試。
one might have the army and the patricians1 on his side while the other had the support of the plebeians2 and poor peasants.
有時(shí)一個(gè)人爭(zhēng)取到軍隊(duì)和顯貴的羅馬人的支持，另一個(gè)則爭(zhēng)取到普通城市居民和農(nóng)民的支持。
And in a long drawn-out struggle, now one and now the other would be upper-most.
于是雙方長(zhǎng)期爭(zhēng)權(quán)奪利，一會(huì)兒這一方，一會(huì)兒另一方占上風(fēng)。
There were two such famous enemies called Marius and Sulla.
馬略和蘇拉便是兩個(gè)這樣的對(duì)手。
Mrius had been fighting in Africa and, several years later, took his army to rescue the Roman empire when it was in peril3.
馬略曾在非洲打過仗，后來率領(lǐng)他的軍隊(duì)使羅馬帝國擺脫一場(chǎng)可怕的劫難。
In 113 BC, barbarians4 from the north had invaded Italy (as the Dorians had Greece or, 700 years later, the Gauls had Rome).
公元前113年，野蠻而好戰(zhàn)的部落（像當(dāng)初多里安人入侵希臘，或700年以后高盧人入侵羅馬）再次入侵意大利，
These invaders5 were the Cimbri and the Teutones, ancestors of today's Germans.
他們叫森布里人和條頓人，并與現(xiàn)在的德意志有親緣關(guān)系。
They had fought so bravely that they had actually succeeded in putting the Roman legions to flight.
他們作戰(zhàn)十分勇敢，他們甚至把羅馬軍團(tuán)打得潰不成軍，
But Marius and his army had been able to halt and defeat them.
只有馬略率領(lǐng)阻擋他們并完全戰(zhàn)勝了他們。
