纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 040银色霍克森胡椒瓶(5)

Of course there were other ports on the Red Sea and other countries sending ships to India. The actual value of the trade was enormous-one hint we have of this is from a second-century papyrus¹ known as the Muziris papyrus. And in that they discuss the cost of a shipload-and it is estimated today at seven million sestertia. Just to put that in context, at that same time a soldier in the Roman army would have earned about 800 sestertia a year."

当然，在红海别的港口以及别的国家也都有开往印度的船只，贸易金额巨大，一份穆集里斯的莎草纸文献记载，整船的胡椒价值700万赛斯特帖姆，而当时罗马士兵一年的薪俸仅为800赛斯特帖姆。

So regularly filling a large silver pepper pot like ours would have taken its toll² on the grocery bills. And the household that owned our pepper pot had another three silver pots, for pepper or other spice-one shaped as Hercules in action, and two in the shape of animals. This is dizzying extravagance, the stuff of bankers' bonuses. But the pepper pots are just a tiny part of the great hoard³ of buried treasure-they were found in a chest containing 78 spoons, 20 ladles, 29 pieces of spectacular gold jewellery-and over 15,000 gold and silver coins. Fifteen different emperors are represented on the coins-the latest is Constantine III, who came to power in 407, and it is this that helps us to date the hoard. It must have been buried for safekeeping sometime after that year-a time when Roman authority in Britain was rapidly breaking down.

因此，让本节中的这个胡椒罐保持常满状态必然会花去大笔开支，但胡麵的主人还拥有3个类似的银罐，其中一个的外形是希腊神话中 的英雄赫拉克勒斯，另两件则是动物造型，用来盛放胡椒或其他香料，简直奢侈得惊人。尽管如此，胡椒瓶也只是这批埋藏的宝藏中的一小部分。 当时出土的一个柜子里有78把普通汤匙，20把长柄勺，29件 金饰，以及一万五千多枚金银币。硬币上共有十五位君主的肖像，距今最近的一位是公元407年登基的康斯坦丁三世。由此我们推断，这批宝藏的大致埋藏时期一定在此之后。差不多就在此时，罗马帝国在英国的统治迅速崩塌。

1 papyrus   

n.古以纸草制成之纸

参考例句：

• The Egyptians wrote on papyrus.埃及人书写用薄草纸。
• Since papyrus dries up and crumble,very few documents of ancient Egypt have survived.因草片会干裂成粉末所以古埃及的文件很少保存下来。

2 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

3 hoard   

n./v.窖藏，贮存，囤积

参考例句：

• They have a hoard of food in the basement.地下室里有他们贮藏的食物。
• How many curios do you hoard in your study?你在你书房里聚藏了多少古玩？