世界小史 第178期:习惯
By drawing attention to this seemingly simple, uncorrupted and natural way of life in the freedom of the forest,
以便向他们说明露天树林里的简朴、纯洁、自然的生活方式,
the authors of the accounts which have come down to us warned their fellow countrymen against what they saw as the Romans' own dangerously refined and self-indulgent way of life.
与罗马人的过分讲究的、柔弱的习惯之间的差别。罗马作家们乐意将这一切向他们的同胞们展示，
The German warriors really were dangerous enemies.
日耳曼人确实是危险的武士，
The Romans had already learnt this to their cost during Augustus' rule.
这一点罗马人在奥古斯都统治下就已经有所领教。
At that time the leader of a Germanic tribe called the Cherusci was a man called Arminius.
当时一个叫阿米尼乌斯或赫尔曼的人士舍罗斯克人日耳曼部落的首领，
Brought up in Rome, he knew all about Roman military tactics and, one day,
由于他是在罗马长大的，所以他谙熟罗马人的战争习俗。
when a Roman army was marching through Teutoburg Forest he ambushed it and annihilated it completely.
他成功地袭击了一支穿越德国条顿堡森林的罗马军队并将其彻底击溃。
After that, the Romans kept out of that region. But it was all the more vital for them to secure their frontiers against the Germans.
从此以后罗马人便不敢深入德国腹地，但是他们也就更加重视保护他们的边境使之免受日耳曼人的侵犯。
Accordingly, during the first century AD, they did what the emperor Shih Huang-ti had done in China.
所以他们在基督诞生后的第一个世纪里就已经，和秦始皇在中国做的极相似。
