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The occasion which resulted in this decree was in some respects a change.
诏书签署时，社会环境正在发生变化。
There had been previous decrees, and they take much the same form, but in this particular reign.
之前也颁过类似的法令，但此刻情况不同，
the reign of a very young king whose kingdom was under attack from many quarters-one of the clauses of the Memphis Decree, the Rosetta Stone, is that priests should no longer come every year to Alexandria-Alexandria was the new Greek capital.
年幼的国王正遭受来自四面八方的攻击。罗塞塔石碑上孟菲斯法令的条款之一便是，祭司们不再需要每年去王朝的新都亚历山大港朝拜，
Instead they could meet at Memphis, the old centre of Egypt.
而只需前往埃及古都孟菲斯。
This was new and it may be seen perhaps as a concession on the part of the Royal household.
这是从未有过的事，表明王室向祭司做了让步。
The priests were critical in keeping the hearts and minds of the Egyptian masses on side for Ptolemy, and the Rosetta Stone was their reward.
祭司在确保埃及民众全身心地拥护托勒密的统治方面发挥着重大作用，罗塞塔石碑上雕刻的承诺便是对他们的回报。
Not only does the decree allow the priests to remain in Memphis, rather than coming to Alexandria, it also gives them a number of very attractive tax breaks.
法令不止免去了他们赶往亚历山大港的奔波之苦，也为他们提供了优厚的税收优惠。
Of course no teenager is likely to have thought this up, somebody behind the throne was clearly thinking strategically on the boy's behalf and, more importantly, on the dynasty's behalf.
一个十几岁的孩子显然想不出这样的政策来，一定是有人在背后为年幼的国王出谋划策，维护托勒密的统治。
So the stone is simultaneously an expression of power and of compromise, although to read the whole content is about as thrilling as reading a new EU treaty written simultaneously in several languages.
罗塞塔石碑因此讲述了一个权力与妥协的故事，但如果通读其全文，基本上跟阅读欧盟用多国语言颁布的最新法规一样无趣。
The content is bureaucratic, priestly and dry-but that of course is not the point.
说到底，它只是用祭司口吻书写的语言干涩的官样文章。
