The Rise 罗马崛起 - 03

And this vast, well-organized empire would muster¹ the largest army the world had ever seen: over half a million soldiers.

Rome was the superpower of the ancient world. Later superpowers never stopped learning the lessons of its spectacular rise and fall. Napoleon was not alone in his obsession² with Rome.

Twenty years before Napoleon marched into Rome, on the other side of the Atlantic, a group of men were designing a political system for their new country.

In designing the Constitution of these United States of America, we have at various times sought precedent³ in the history of that ancient republic, and endeavored to draw lessons both from its leading ideas and from the tumult⁴ and factions⁵ which finally brought it low. Thomas Jefferson.

The American founding fathers spent most of their childhood and much of their adulthood⁶ reading the Latin classics. To the founders⁷, the past was not something that was dead; it was something that was alive, especially the Roman past. It was alive with personal and social meaning. This was crucial, I think, to the American Revolution, because they were doing something really unprecedented⁸ in this revolution. And yet, and yet they were able to feel that they were not the first. The basis of our political system, I think, lies in Rome.

The Western world grew up in Rome's shadow, its legends, its laws, its institutions, and its language. Napoleon said the story of Rome is the story of the world. It's a story of great commanders and politicians--- men like Caesar, Augustus, Hadrian, and Constantine. But it's also a story of the poor, who bore the brunt of their leaders' ambitions. It's a story of vast idealism, and an equally vast greed for power. And finally, it's a story of Rome's spectacular fall, and the chaos⁹ that followed.

But behind all that are the stories of Rome's beginnings, almost 3, 000 years ago, in the lush hills of central Italy.

1 muster   

v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册

参考例句：

• Go and muster all the men you can find.去集合所有你能找到的人。
• I had to muster my courage up to ask him that question.我必须鼓起勇气向他问那个问题。

2 obsession   

n.困扰，无法摆脱的思想(或情感)

参考例句：

• I was suffering from obsession that my career would be ended.那时的我陷入了我的事业有可能就此终止的困扰当中。
• She would try to forget her obsession with Christopher.她会努力忘记对克里斯托弗的迷恋。

3 precedent   

n.先例，前例；惯例；adj.在前的，在先的

参考例句：

• Is there a precedent for what you want me to do?你要我做的事有前例可援吗？
• This is a wonderful achievement without precedent in Chinese history.这是中国历史上亘古未有的奇绩。

4 tumult   

n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹

参考例句：

• The tumult in the streets awakened everyone in the house.街上的喧哗吵醒了屋子里的每一个人。
• His voice disappeared under growing tumult.他的声音消失在越来越响的喧哗声中。

5 factions   

组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The gens also lives on in the "factions." 氏族此外还继续存在于“factions〔“帮”〕中。 来自英汉非文学 - 家庭、私有制和国家的起源
• rival factions within the administration 政府中的对立派别

6 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

7 founders   

n.创始人( founder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was one of the founders of the university's medical faculty. 他是该大学医学院的创建人之一。 来自辞典例句
• The founders of our religion made this a cornerstone of morality. 我们宗教的创始人把这看作是道德的基石。 来自辞典例句

8 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

9 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。