公元前6世纪末，罗马放逐了伊达拉里亚人，建立了共和政体，逐渐征服了近邻地区。罗马城市国家站在其他自治国家之上，作为城市联盟的盟主进行统治的传统，到罗马的统治扩大到地中海全部区域的历史时，罗马市不但是罗马帝国的首都，而且不要忘记是罗马城市建立了罗马帝国这个事实。

the romans in china

罗马人在中国

they came, saw and settled

他们来、他们见、他们定居

so it's said, anyway.

凯撒大帝死于中国：真的假的？姑妄听之。

in a remote village of western china, high on the dusty pastures that stretch toward the qilian mountains, the local branch of the communist party is finishing off a new headquarters that stands out from the local buildings, all built of compacted earth. this building has a classical roman portico, made of concrete, at the entrance. the local party chief and his deputy both think they are the descendants of romans.

中国西部，尘土飞扬的牧场连绵起伏，一直通向祁连山脉。一个共产党支部在牧场高处一个偏远村庄中盖起了一座新办公楼。在周围全用粘土夯成的其他建筑物陪衬下，这座楼鹤立鸡群。建筑物入口处有一座混凝土制作的古典罗马门廊。该组织的书记和副书记都认为自己是罗马人的后裔。

their village, zhelaizhai, is separated from what was the roman empire by about 6,500km (over 4,000 miles) of forbidding terrain. to get to this little place in gansu province, a roman would have had to cross all of central asia and the middle east, encountering fierce tribes en route. yet some people believe that a group of roman soldiers made this journey 2,000 years ago and then stayed.

这座村庄的名字叫者来寨（zhelaizhai），它与曾经的罗马帝国关山阻隔，大约6500公里（4000多英里）不可逾越的地域横亘其间。如果罗马人想要来到甘肃省的这块小地方，就必须穿越整个中亚大陆和中东，在路上会遭遇残忍的部落族人。但有人相信，有一群罗马战士曾在2000年前走完成了这段旅途，然后留了下来。

it may be wishful thinking, but so captivating is the notion of a roman town in ancient china that for 50 years it has inspired a disparate variety of supporters, among them an oxford university professor, an australian adventurer and the abbot of a nearby buddhist temple. the abbot says prayers for the ghosts of roman soldiers, who, he reports, visit his temple to petition for salvation. through an illiterate woman who acts as a medium, the abbot has discovered that julius caesar himself spent his final days in yongchang county and died a buddhist. caesar's assassins apparently got the wrong man.

这或许只是人们一厢情愿的想象，但在古代中国存在着一个罗马城镇的想法如此迷人，以至于它在50年间鼓舞了各种各样的支持者，其中包括一位牛津大学教授，一个澳大利亚探险家和附近一座佛教寺院的住持。那位住持为那些罗马士兵的鬼魂诵经，据他说，这些鬼魂来到他的寺院请求超度。通过一个不识字的神婆作灵媒，这位住持发现，裘里乌斯•凯撒（julius caesar）本人在永昌县度过了生命的最后时光，而且死前皈依了佛教。刺杀凯撒的人似乎找错人了。

the curious physical features of the local communist chiefs, zhang jianxin and song guorong, strengthen their belief that they are of roman stock. both have long straight noses, which any chinese will tell you is the hallmark of a foreigner. mr song has long brown hair tipped with curls—quite different from the straight black hair of most chinese. mr zhang tells of his delight when a group of foreigners arrived in the village in the early 1990s and told him about the roman-settlement theory. “it was good to be connected with the romans. we felt we'd discovered our ancestors.”

支部书记张建新和宋国荣（音译）奇异的面貌更让他们相信自己是罗马后裔。他们俩都长着又长又直的鼻子，任何中国人都会认定这是老外的标记。宋国荣还有一头棕色的长发，发尾卷曲，这跟绝大多数中国人直直的黑发明显不同。一群外国人在20世纪90年代初来过这个村子，他们告知张建新有关罗马人在此定居的理论。他说他当时很高兴：“能跟罗马人搭上关系，这可太好了。我们当时觉得是找到了自己的祖宗。”

evidence of a roman town in gansu province would indeed be exciting—if it could be established. one of the strangest aspects of china's history is that such a cultivated civilisation should have stayed isolated from its counterparts to the west for so long. the existence of not just a foreign settlement but a western settlement, some 13 centuries before the arrival of marco polo and 16 centuries before the portuguese established a colony in macau, would require some rewriting of history.

如果可以证实甘肃省有一座罗马村镇，这的确令人兴奋。中国历史最为奇特的一个方面，是这样一个高度发达的文明社会居然会在如此之长的历史时期内与西方的文明社会相互隔绝。如果大约在马可波罗来到中国13个世纪之前、葡萄牙人在澳门建立殖民地16个世纪之前就在中国存在着一个外国的而且是西方的定居点，这将会改写历史。