http://wsu.edu/~dee/ROME/HISTORY.HTM
Roman
history begins in a small village in central Italy; this unassuming
(謙遜的，不招搖的) village would grow into a small metropolis
(重要城市)
, conquer
(攻克，征服) and control all of
Italy, southern Europe, the Middle East, and Egypt, and find itself, by
the start of AD time, the most powerful and largest empire in the
world. They managed what no other people had managed before: the ruled
the entire world under a single administration for a considerable
amount of time. This imperial
(帝國的) rule, which extended from Great Britain
to Egypt, from Spain to Mesopotamia
(美索不達米亞)
, was a period of remarkable peace
（和平）
.
The Romans would look to their empire as the instrument that brought
law and justice to the rest of the world; in some sense, the relative
peace and stability they brought to the world did support this view.
They were, however, a military
(軍事的) state, and they ruled over
this vast territory
(領土，版圖) by maintaining a strong military presence in
subject
(受支配的) countries. An immensely
(非常) practical people, the Romans devoted
much of their brilliance to military strategy and technology,
administration, and law, all in support of the vast world government
that they built.
Rome, however, was responsible for more than just military
and administrative genius. Culturally, the Romans had a slight
inferiority complex
(自卑感)
in regards to the Greeks, who had begun their
city-states only a few centuries before the rise of the Roman republic.
The Romans, however, derived
（得到，源於）much of their culture from the Greeks:
art, architecture, philosophy, and even religion
(宗教)
. However, the Romans
changed much of this culture, adapting it to their own particular world
view and practical needs. It is this changed Greek culture, which we
call Graeco-Roman culture
(希臘羅馬文化), that was handed down to the European
civilizations in late antiquity
(古代的) and the Renaissance
(文藝復興).
Our journey through this remarkable history begins with the
land itself and the various peoples that inhabited
(有人居住的)
it. Unlike most of
the regions
(地區) we've dealt with, Italy was a multicultural landscape
(風景，景色) that
came to be dominated by this small village, Rome. Each chapter in this
history is followed by the title of the next chapter; you can proceed
from chapter to chapter in this history by clicking the title that
concludes each chapter. Alternatively, you can use the navigation menus
in the frames to the left to go back to the contents page and navigate
（導航）the chapters as you please.
Richard Hooker