The Megaprojects That Even the Ancient Romans Couldn’t Pull Off: Rerouting the Tiber, Digging a Canal, and More
Some would call the United States of America the mightiest empire the world has ever known.
有些人会称美利坚合众国为世界上最强大的帝国。
Yet over the past half-century or so, it has shown a strange inability to build domestic infrastructure, at least at the efficiency or on the scale seen elsewhere in the world.
然而，在过去的半个世纪左右的时间里，它在建设国内基础设施方面表现出了奇怪的无力，至少无法达到世界其他地方的效率或规模。
(This will not come as news to American enthusiasts of high-speed rail.) Here on Open Culture, we’ve previously featured history YouTuber Garrett Ryan’s take on the question of whether the U.S. is now declining like the ancient Roman Empire.
（对于美国的高铁爱好者来说，这不会是新闻。）在开放文化中，我们之前曾专题报道过历史 YouTuber Garrett Ryan 对美国现在是否像古罗马帝国一样正在衰落的问题的看法。
On a more recent video for his channel Told in Stone, he’s highlighted the megaprojects that even the Romans — who managed the Pantheon, the Colosseum, and the Pont du Gard , to say nothing of their uniquely long-lasting concrete itself — couldn’t pull off.
在他的频道 Told in Stone 的最新视频中，他强调了即使是管理万神殿、罗马斗兽场和加尔桥的罗马人也无法完成的大型项目，更不用说他们独特的持久混凝土本身了。
The Tiber may seem like a tame river today, but it wasn’t always so placid.
今天的台伯河可能看起来像一条温和的河流，但它并不总是那么平静。
In antiquity, rains caused it to flood every year.
在古代，每年下雨都会导致洪水泛滥。
Senator-historian Cassius Dio recorded an incident in 54 BC when the suddenly rising waters caused not just houses but whole neighborhoods to collapse.
参议员历史学家卡西乌斯·迪奥 (Cassius Dio) 记录了公元前 54 年发生的一起事件，当时突然上涨的水位不仅导致房屋倒塌，还导致整个社区倒塌。
The Tiber’s flooding worsened over time, inspiring Julius Caesar to propose re-routing it either around Rome or into a tunnel running beneath the city.
随着时间的推移，台伯河的洪水愈演愈烈，激励尤利乌斯·凯撒提议将其改道，要么绕过罗马，要么进入城市下方的隧道。
Unfortunately, the Ides of March came before work could get underway.
不幸的是，在工作开始之前，三月十五日就到来了。
Augustus opted to dredge the river channel, and Tiberius championed diverting its tributaries.
奥古斯都选择疏浚河道，提比略则主张改道支流。
Only the construction of modern embankments in the nineteenth century brought the regular fluvial disasters under control, ensuring peace for strollers in search of their own dolce vita .
直到十九世纪修建了现代堤坝，才控制住了经常发生的河流灾害，确保了寻找自己甜蜜生活的漫步者的安宁。
Roman ships sailing to Greece had to make their way around the Peloponnese, the south of the Greek peninsula.
前往希腊的罗马船只必须绕过希腊半岛南部的伯罗奔尼撒半岛。
The dangers of that stretch were many, and did their part to sink the ship carrying the Antikythera Mechanism .
那段路程的危险很多，并且导致了载有安提凯西拉机械装置的船只沉没。
The Isthmus of Corinth held out the promise of safer passage, at least for those willing to drag their laden ships over a bit of land.
科林斯地峡承诺提供更安全的通道，至少对于那些愿意拖着满载的船只穿过一小块陆地的人来说是这样。
Digging a canal was, in some sense, the obvious solution, considered by both Julius Caesar and Caligula, but “only Nero was megalomaniacal enough to actually begin the project.” A decent amount of progress had been made before another instance of regicide (or perhaps, in this particular case, tyrannicide) put a stop to the work.
从某种意义上说，挖掘运河是显而易见的解决方案，尤利乌斯·凯撒和卡利古拉都考虑过，但“只有尼禄狂妄到足以真正开始这个项目。”在另一起弑君事件（或者在本例中，也许是弑君者）阻止这项工作之前，已经取得了相当大的进展。
Rather than being resumed by a later emperor, the canal “became a byword for hubris” — at least until the job was finally done in the uncommonly ambitious nineteenth century.
这条运河并没有被后来的皇帝恢复，而是“成为傲慢的代名词”——至少在雄心勃勃的十九世纪这项工作最终完成之前是这样。
In central Germany, near where the village of Waldgirmes is today, Romans founded a city with many features of an imperial settlement, such as a classic street grid, pipes running from a central aqueduct, and a forum, at the center of which a gilded statue of Augustus on horseback once stood.
在德国中部，靠近今天的瓦尔德吉尔梅斯村的地方，罗马人建立了一座具有许多帝国定居点特征的城市，例如经典的街道网格、从中央渡槽延伸的管道和广场，广场的中心曾经矗立着一尊奥古斯都骑马的镀金雕像。
Dating to the year 4 BC, the city was intended as a new capital for what the Romans called Germania, though it ended up abandoned after the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest only about a decade after its founding.
早在公元前 4 年，这座城市就被打算作为罗马人称为日耳曼尼亚的新首都，但在建城仅十年后，它就因条顿堡森林之战而被废弃。
“The buildings were burned,” Ryan says.
“建筑物被烧毁了，”瑞安说。
“The head of Augustus’ equestrian statue was thrown down a well,” only to be discovered nineteen centuries later.
“奥古斯都骑马雕像的头被扔进井里”，十九个世纪后才被发现。
That image could inspire a meditation on what may be the way of all empires — or serve as a warning to any American leader considering immortalizing himself and his horse in gold.
这张照片可能会激发人们对所有帝国的方式的思考，或者对任何考虑用黄金永垂不朽的美国领导人发出警告。
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Based in Seoul, Colin M a rshall writes and broadcas ts on cities, language, and culture.
科林·马歇尔居住在首尔，撰写和广播有关城市、语言和文化的文章。
He’s the author of the newsletter Books on Cities as well as the books 한국 요약 금지 (No Summarizing Korea) and Korean Newtro .
他是时事通讯《城市书籍》以及《한국 요약 금지》（无总结韩国）和《韩国新歌》等书的作者。
Follow him on the social network formerly known as Twitter at @colinm a rshall .
在以前称为 Twitter 的社交网络上关注他：@colinm a rshall。