Rome Was Not Built in a Day (Ⅰ)羅馬不是一天建成的（上）

By V. M. Hillyer

By? V. M. Hillyer

——V. M. 希利爾（仲秋 譯）

V. M.希利爾（1875—1931），美國(guó)著名兒童教育家、科普作家，創(chuàng)建了卡爾弗特教育體系。他為孩子們編寫了一套趣味盎然的歷史、地理、藝術(shù)讀物，即《寫給孩子看的世界歷史》《寫給孩子看的世界地理》《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》。本文選自《寫給孩子看的藝術(shù)史》，該書寫于二十世紀(jì)二三十年代。

Some people wear imitation pearls， imitation diamonds， imitation jewelry—just for show. Some people build houses of concrete blocks to imitate stone， paint wooden columns to imitate marble， cover plaster walls with paper to imitate tile. Such imitations that pretend to be something they are not， are a kind of cheating， a fake. The Greeks never faked in this way. The Romans did so often. They built buildings of concrete or brick and covered the outside with thin pieces of marble.

For a few hundred years before and after Christ was born， the Romans built and built， many and great buildings， and more buildings of more kinds than had ever been built before. They built them not only in Rome and in Italy， but in other countries which the Romans owned.

有一些人喜歡戴仿造的珍珠或者鉆石首飾，或許僅僅是為了炫耀。有一些人修建房子時(shí)喜歡用混凝土仿造石頭，或者用漆刷過的木柱仿造成大理石柱子，還有人在石灰墻上貼了墻紙仿造成瓷磚的樣子。這類仿造成其他東西樣子的做法，是欺騙，是造假。古希臘人從來(lái)不會(huì)采用這種做法，但是羅馬人卻十分喜歡。羅馬人在蓋房子的時(shí)候使用混凝土或者磚頭，最后在外墻貼一層薄薄的大理石板——看起來(lái)就像是大理石蓋的房子一樣。

在公元元年前后的幾百年時(shí)間里，羅馬人不停地建造房屋和各種建筑，他們修建了許多非常雄偉的建筑，建筑的種類更加豐富，超過以往任何時(shí)候修建的建筑。他們不僅把建筑修建在羅馬和意大利地區(qū)，還修建到了由羅馬控制的其他國(guó)家。

Though the Romans built many great buildings， none of them quite equaled those the Greeks built. The reason was that the Romans were not artists but engineers. The Greeks were very religious and built temples; the Romans were great governors and worshiped everything that concerned governing. The Romans used instruments to design their buildings， whereas the Greeks used their eyes. In a Roman building， every line that was supposed to be vertical was vertical. Every line that was supposed to be horizontal was horizontal. Every line that was supposed to be straight was straight. It was as if they had drawn a picture with a ruler and square and compass instead of free-hand.

In the same way， a Roman building looks mechanical. We like them as we like an engine. They are strong and powerful， but somehow seem to lack the beauty of a hand-made picture.

How many kinds of buildings do you think there are in the place where you live？ Try to count them. Houses， of course， but how many others—churches， banks， stores， court-houses， libraries， and so on.

盡管羅馬人修建了很多很多的房子，但沒有一棟能與古希臘的建筑相媲美。這是因?yàn)?，羅馬人只是建筑工程師，而不是藝術(shù)家。古希臘人信奉宗教，所以他們修建了大量的廟宇。羅馬人卻是出色的統(tǒng)治者，因此他們對(duì)所有與統(tǒng)治有關(guān)的事物都十分崇尚。古希臘人用自己的眼睛設(shè)計(jì)建筑，而羅馬人設(shè)計(jì)房子用的是測(cè)量工具。羅馬建筑中所有需要垂直的線條都是完全垂直的，所有需要水平的線條則都是完全水平的，所有筆直的線條就都是筆直的。這些建筑看起來(lái)都不像是人工建出來(lái)的，反倒像是用直尺和圓規(guī)畫出來(lái)的，絕對(duì)規(guī)整的一幅圖畫。

也正是因?yàn)檫@樣，羅馬的建筑看上去非常機(jī)械、呆板。我們喜歡羅馬人的建筑，就像是對(duì)發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)的喜歡之情。因?yàn)楸M管他們都非常強(qiáng)壯有力，但是總還是缺少一種手繪圖畫的人文之美。

你家附近不同的建筑有多少種呢？試著數(shù)數(shù)吧！當(dāng)然了，住宅肯定會(huì)有很多，但其他種類的建筑有多少呢，比如說：教堂、銀行、商店、法院、圖書館，等等。

Word Study

imitation /'?m?'te??n/ n. 仿制品;贗品

Its not real leather; its only an imitation.

marble /'mɑ?bl/ n. 大理石

fake /fe?k/ n. 假貨;贗品

worship /'w????p/ v. 崇敬，崇拜（上帝或神）

horizontal /'h?r?'z?ntl/ adj. 水平的;與地面平行的;橫的

mechanical /m?'k?n?kl/ adj. 機(jī)械般的;呆頭呆腦的

He looks very mechanical.

The Greeks had only a few， but the Romans built many kinds—not only temples， houses and palaces—

Arches and aqueducts

Bridges and baths

Court-houses and halls

Theaters and amphitheater

Some were fake， but not all， and some were magnificent and imposing. Most of the Roman buildings are now in ruins， but one building—a temple built to all the gods—is still standing and in use today. It is called the Pantheon， which means “All the Gods.” It has a porch in front with Corinthian columns， and back of the porch a circular building with a huge dome made like a bowl turned upside down， of concrete. The circular walls that support the dome are twenty feet thick and the only window is a large circular opening in the top of the dome. There is no glass in the opening， but so high is it above the floor that even a heavy rain barely wets the floor beneath.

古希臘人的建筑沒有多少種，但羅馬人建造了大量不同種類的建筑，他們不僅僅建了廟宇、住房、宮殿，還修建了拱門和引水渠、橋梁和浴室、法院和市政大廳、劇院和競(jìng)技場(chǎng)。

這些建筑中有一部分是仿造的，但也并非全都如此，而且其中有些建筑建造得非常雄偉壯觀。到了今天，大部分的羅馬建筑只剩下了斷壁殘?jiān)?，不過還是有一幢建筑——是給眾神修建的廟宇——卻完好地保存著，這座建筑叫作“萬(wàn)神殿”。萬(wàn)神殿的正面有一排科林斯式柱組成的柱廊，柱廊的后面連接著一棟巨大的環(huán)形建筑。這個(gè)環(huán)形建筑的頂部是一個(gè)巨大的圓屋頂，就像一個(gè)混凝土的大碗被翻扣過來(lái)一樣。而支撐圓頂屋的環(huán)形墻壁差不多有6米厚。在這個(gè)建筑中，唯一的窗戶開在圓屋頂?shù)捻敳?，是一個(gè)圓形的窗口。窗口沒有玻璃，但因?yàn)樗O(shè)計(jì)得非常高，離地面也就很遠(yuǎn)，所以即使下著傾盆大雨，屋里的地面也幾乎不會(huì)被淋濕。

The Square House is one of the finest of these Roman buildings， with engaged Corinthian columns as well as with whole columns.

It is not in Rome， however. It is in what is now France， but when it was built， France was a part of the Roman Empire and Romans built it. In France they call it the Maison Carrée， which means Square House.

The theaters where the Roman actors gave plays had no roofs. The seats were of stone and were arranged in a half circle that sloped upward as today. In France， at a town called Orange， is a Roman theater in which plays are still given.

羅馬人修建的房屋當(dāng)中，方形神殿算得上是最好的建筑之一了。這主要是因?yàn)榉叫紊竦钸\(yùn)用了科林斯柱式的廊柱表現(xiàn)風(fēng)格，當(dāng)然也因?yàn)檎w的廊柱都非常好。

不過方形神殿并不在羅馬，而位于今天的法國(guó)。這是因?yàn)楫?dāng)時(shí)的法國(guó)還是羅馬帝國(guó)的一部分，所以羅馬人在那里修建了方形神殿?，F(xiàn)在，法國(guó)人把這個(gè)方形神殿稱為“方形房子”。

劇院是羅馬演員演出的地方，它是露天的。劇院里的座位都是用石頭直接砌成的，但也和我們今天的劇院一樣，半圓形的看臺(tái)呈階梯狀排列。在法國(guó)，有一個(gè)名叫橘郡的小鎮(zhèn)，那里也有一個(gè)古羅馬時(shí)期的劇院，到現(xiàn)在那里還一直舉辦著表演活動(dòng)。

Word Study

imposing /?m'p??z??/ adj. 壯觀的;使人印象深刻的

dome /d??m/ n. 穹頂;圓屋頂

barely /'be?li/ adv. 幾乎不;幾乎沒有

There was barely any smell.

slope /sl??p/ v. 傾斜;有坡度

The garden slopes away towards the river.