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Rome needed professional armies and experienced generals to fight its wars.
罗马需要职业军队和有经验的将领指挥战争，
These generals had to be kept happy.
得让这些将领开心才行。
And nothing made a general happier than a long-term grant of proconsular imperium, a great big blank check to fight Rome's enemies just one wanted to.
而没有什么比给他们长期地方总督统治权和可以让他们随心所欲的攻打罗马敌人的空头支票更让他们高兴的了。
In sixty seven BC, young Pompey, who now called himself Gnaeus Pompey the Great, received a five year grant of proconsular imperium to rid the Mediterranean of pirates. It took him nine months.
公元前67年，年轻的庞培(现在自称为伟大的格涅乌斯·庞培) 接受了为期五年的地方总督统治权受命清剿地中海海盗，他仅用9个月就完成了任务。
In the next year, another law gave Pompey proconsular imperium to defeat King Mithridates of Pontus once and for all, finishing the work Sulla had left behind.
第二年另一项法令授予庞培地方总督统治权命其彻底击败本都王国国王米特里达提，结束苏拉没能完成的战争
And this, Pompey accomplished by December sixty two BC.
庞培于公元前62年12月完成了这一任务。
So far, Pompey had not abused either of his grants of proconsular imperium.
到那时庞培都没有滥用授予他的两次地方总督统治权，
All Rome still awaited his return with great anxiety.
全罗马都在焦急地等待他的归来，
Rome had already endured another minor civil war in sixty three BC when the popularis Catiline was caught plotting to overthrow the state.
公元前63年罗马已经经受了另一场小型内战，当时喀提林阴谋企图推翻国家政权被抓。
Catiline's backers were Crassus and Marius's ambitious but impoverished nephew, the pontifex maximus Julius Caesar.
喀提林的支持者是克拉苏和马略满腹雄心但是贫困潦倒的侄子，大祭司朱利叶斯·凯撒，
The mighty mouth of the consul Cicero was enough to put Catiline out of commission, but Crassus and Caesar remained free, hoping to gain leverage against their joint adversary Pompey.
执政官西塞罗可以将喀提林打倒，但是克拉苏和凯撒依然是自由的，他们希望能制衡共同的敌人庞培，
As far as the Senate was concerned, all of the potential Sullas needed to be put on the sideline, especially Pompey, Crassus and Caesar.
在元老院看来，所有可能成为下一个苏拉的人其势力都要被消除，尤其是庞培，克拉苏和凯撒，
The great Roman powder keg was about to blow sky high.
伟大罗马的火药桶将要炸的天高了，
Segment Ten C: The First Triumvirate.
十C: 前三头同盟
The cursus honorum, as it had evolved at first, worked just fine,
光荣晋升体系从建立起一直运行良好，
even for a city-state which had absorbed all of Italy.
即使对这个收服了整个意大利的城邦来说，
Even a Scipio Africanus, the conqueror of Hannibal and darling of the Roman masses, had been content to fade into the woodwork once his job was done.
即使是非洲的征服者西庇阿他征服了汉尼拔，并在罗马民众中声望很高，但是也甘愿在完成工作后退隐从事木匠工作。
No Roman was greater than the Roman state, and the Gracchi had learned the hard way not to stick one's neck out against the Senate.
现在的罗马比罗马城邦更强大了，格拉古兄弟也知道了招惹元老院的残酷代价。
Even Sulla, murderous thug that he was, tried to ensure there would be no more warlords like him.
即使是苏拉这个凶恶的暴徒也想保证不要再出现他这样的军阀。
By increasing the Senate's power he thought he would save the Roman Republic yet.
他以为通过加强元老院的权力可以拯救罗马共和国，
But those were different times. Rome...
但是此时不同于彼时。罗马······
