Fornication in America: Trump’s Arch, Rome’s Emperors, and the Meaning of Victory

In 79 A.D., Gaius Plinius Secundus, known today as Pliny the Elder, was the supreme commander of the Roman imperial fleet, permanently stationed at Misenum near Naples.

公元 79 年，盖乌斯·普林尼乌斯·塞昆杜斯（Gaius Plinius Secundus），即今天的老普林尼，是罗马帝国舰队的最高指挥官，永久驻扎在那不勒斯附近的米塞努姆。

He died during the eruption of Vesuvius, after sailing across the bay on a valiant but unsuccessful rescue mission.

他在维苏威火山喷发期间去世，此前他在一次勇敢但不成功的救援任务中航行穿过海湾。

Amid such heavy responsibilities, Pliny also wrote one of antiquity’s great encyclopedic works .

在如此繁重的责任之下，普林尼还写出了一部古代伟大的百科全书式的著作。

He read and excerpted books of all kinds, and he knew something about Roman monuments.

他阅读并摘录各种书籍，并且对罗马古迹有所了解。

On the form and meaning of the triumphal arch, his explanation was characteristically blunt: “The point of columns with statues on top is to raise a man above other mortals.

关于凯旋门的形式和意义，他的解释是典型的直率：“顶部有雕像的柱子的目的是使一个人高于其他凡人。

Monumental arches, a newer invention, mean the same thing.” ( Columnarum ratio erat attolli super ceteros mortales, quod et arcus significant novicio invento .) By Pliny’s day, Rome’s freestanding stone arches were already becoming associated with military victories and the emperors who won them.

纪念性拱门是一项较新的发明，也具有同样的意义。” （Columnarum Ratio erat attolli super ceteros mortales, quod et arcus important novicio invento 。）到普林尼时代，罗马的独立式石拱门已经与军事胜利和赢得胜利的皇帝联系在一起。

In the centuries that followed, that association grew stronger.

在接下来的几个世纪里，这种联系变得更加牢固。

The three best-known surviving arches in the city of Rome today are all within walking distance of one another.

今天罗马城现存的三个最著名的拱门都在步行距离之内。

The Arch of Titus , erected in 81 A.D., commemorates Rome’s conquest of Jerusalem and destruction of its Jewish temple (the carved menorah is impossible to miss).

提图斯凯旋门建于公元 81 年，是为了纪念罗马征服耶路撒冷并摧毁其犹太圣殿（雕刻的烛台不容错过）。

The Arch of Septimius Severus , erected in 203 A.D., commemorates Severus’ victories over the Parthians from 194 to 195 and 197 to 199.

塞普蒂米乌斯·塞维鲁凯旋门 (Arch of Septimius Severus) 建于公元 203 年，纪念塞维鲁 (Severus) 在 194 年至 195 年以及 197 年至 199 年战胜帕提亚人。

And the Arch of Constantine , dedicated in 315 A.D., commemorates Constantine I’s victory over the rival emperor Maxentius in 312.

君士坦丁凯旋门于公元 315 年落成，旨在纪念君士坦丁一世于 312 年战胜竞争对手马克森提乌斯皇帝。

In the modern world, these famous examples have helped make the association between monumental arches, military victory, and imperial power especially strong, although — as we will see — the architectural form itself can carry other meanings.

在现代世界，这些著名的例子使纪念性拱门、军事胜利和皇权之间的联系变得特别牢固，尽管——正如我们将看到的——建筑形式本身可以承载其他含义。

This has always been true.

这一直都是事实。

Before Pliny’s time, back in the freer days of the Roman Republic, these monuments had a different name and somewhat wider associations.

在普林尼时代之前，在罗马共和国的自由时代，这些纪念碑有不同的名称和更广泛的联系。

They were called fornices (vaults or arches), and some were simply magnificent exercises in massive self-advertisement.

它们被称为穹顶（拱顶或拱门），有些只是大规模自我广告的华丽练习。

The historian Livy tells us of one general who returned victorious from Spain in 196 B.C.

历史学家李维向我们讲述了一位将军于公元前 196 年从西班牙凯旋归来的故事。

with an enormous quantity of booty.

带着大量的战利品。

Without even bothering to seek a triumph, the formal military procession authorized by the Senate, the general simply used some of the spoils to erect three fornices at prominent locations around Rome and topped them with gilded statues.

这位将军甚至没有费心去寻求元老院授权的正式军事游行的凯旋，只是用一些战利品在罗马周围的显着位置竖起了三个穹顶，并在顶部放置了镀金的雕像。

Strictly speaking, then, his fornices weren’t triumphal arches.

那么，严格来说，他的穹顶并不是凯旋门。

They do show, however, that even in republican Rome, a man on the make could use an arch for conspicuous self-advertisement.

然而，它们确实表明，即使在罗马共和国，一个成功的人也可以利用拱门来进行引人注目的自我广告。

The practice of building those fornices was perfectly respectable.

建造这些穹顶的做法是完全值得尊敬的。

The word’s later career was less so.

这个词后来的职业生涯就不那么如此了。

Because prostitutes frequented the vaulted spaces of Roman cities, the word fornix , the singular of fornices , came to mean a brothel.

由于妓女经常光顾罗马城市的拱形空间，所以“fornix”（穹窿的单数形式）一词开始意味着妓院。

From it developed the verb fornicari , “to visit a brothel,” and eventually fornicatio, and the meaning the word still carries in English today.

从它发展出动词 fornicari ，“参观妓院”，并最终发展为 fornicatio ，这个词在今天的英语中仍然具有这个含义。

It is presumably for this reason that, under Rome’s first emperor Augustus (63 B.C.

大概正是由于这个原因，在罗马第一位皇帝奥古斯都（公元前 63 年）的统治下，

to 14 A.D.), the Republican fornix gave way to arcus in official usage.

到公元 14 年），官方使用中的“穹窿”被“拱形”所取代。

The new word meant both “arch” and “bow,” a resonance that scholars have connected with Apollo, whom Augustus presented as his patron deity.

这个新词的意思是“拱门”和“弓”，学者们将这种共鸣与阿波罗联系起来，奥古斯都将阿波罗视为他的守护神。

(Augustus, too, understood the value of a good brand.)

（奥古斯都也了解好品牌的价值。）

But Augustus did more than preside over a new name.

但奥古斯都所做的不仅仅是主持一个新名字。

He also built arches on an unprecedented scale and narrowed their focus.

他还以前所未有的规模建造了拱门，并缩小了范围。

Six arches stood in Rome in 27 B.C., when he took power.

公元前 27 年，当他掌权时，罗马矗立着六座拱门。

By his death in 14 A.D., almost as many new monuments had been added , and Augustus was the patron or honoree of all of them.

到公元 14 年他去世时，几乎同样多的新纪念碑被添加起来，而奥古斯都是所有这些纪念碑的赞助人或荣誉获得者。

This was no accident.

这并非偶然。

Having defeated his rivals in a series of bloody civil wars and secured sole power, Augustus gradually brought triumphal honors under his control.

在一系列血腥的内战中击败了对手并获得了唯一的权力后，奥古斯都逐渐将凯旋的荣誉置于自己的掌控之中。

After 19 B.C., Augustus effectively confined full triumphs to members of his own family.

公元前 19 年后，奥古斯都实际上将完全的凯旋仅限于他自己的家庭成员。

Arches increasingly celebrated the emperor and his dynasty exclusively, transforming a relatively flexible form of republican self-advertisement into a monumental expression of imperial power.

拱门越来越多地专门颂扬皇帝和他的王朝，将一种相对灵活的共和主义自我广告形式转变为皇权的不朽表达。

That Augustan shift would shape the arch’s reception forever after.

奥古斯都的转变将永远影响拱门的受欢迎程度。

Roman arches continued to serve varied purposes, but later European revivals increasingly foregrounded their association with military victory and imperial conquest.

罗马拱门继续发挥着不同的作用，但后来的欧洲复兴运动越来越强调它们与军事胜利和帝国征服的联系。

That history brings us to 2026 A.D., the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

这段历史将我们带到了公元 2026 年，即《独立宣言》发表 250 周年。

President Donald Trump has decided to build a fornix in Washington, D.C. And it’s a big one.

唐纳德·特朗普总统决定在华盛顿特区建造一个穹窿，而且是一个很大的穹窿。

Trump calls it a “Triumphal Arch,” and promises that it will be “more magnificent and larger than the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.”

特朗普称其为“凯旋门”，并承诺它将“比巴黎凯旋门更宏伟、更大”。

Why?

为什么？

To commemorate his victory over Iran, like Septimius Severus?

为了纪念他对伊朗的胜利，就像塞普蒂米乌斯·西弗勒斯那样？

The jury is still out on that.

对此，陪审团还没有定论。

By his own account , the triumph Trump has in mind is America’s independence, achieved by men nearly two and a half centuries before he returned to office.

根据特朗普自己的说法，特朗普心目中的胜利是美国的独立，这是在他重新掌权前近两个半世纪的人们所实现的。

His fornix , he says, is to commemorate the nation’s founding and its liberation from Britain.

他说，他的穹窿是为了纪念这个国家的成立和从英国的统治下解放出来。

To mark the nation’s 250th birthday, it will rise 250 feet, nearly as tall as the U.S. Capitol and half again as tall as Napoleon’s Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

为了庆祝国家 250 周年生日，它将升高 250 英尺，几乎与美国国会大厦一样高，是拿破仑在巴黎的凯旋门的一半高。

There is nothing inherently strange about marking the American founding with an arch.

用拱门来标记美国的建国本质上并没有什么奇怪的。

The problem lies in the particular kind of arch Trump says he wants: a “Triumphal Arch.” It’s a designation he insists on.

问题在于特朗普所说的他想要的特殊拱门：“凯旋门”。这是他坚持的一个称号。

But calling it a triumphal arch tells almost exactly the wrong story about what the founders thought they had won.

但称其为凯旋门几乎完全错误地讲述了创始人认为他们已经赢得了胜利的故事。

The reasons go back a long way.

原因可以追溯到很久以前。

With the fall of Rome in the West, permanent freestanding triumphal arches largely disappeared as political monuments for centuries.

随着罗马在西方的衰落，几个世纪以来，永久独立式凯旋门作为政治纪念碑基本上消失了。

The arch form persisted, especially within churches, while temporary arches remained a feature of royal entries.

拱门的形式一直存在，特别是在教堂内，而临时拱门仍然是皇家入口的一个特征。

But the associations were different.

但这些协会是不同的。

The Eastern Empire was another matter.

东帝国则是另一回事。

In Constantinople, the Greek-speaking emperors, whom we call Byzantines though they called themselves “Romans” ( Rhōmaioi , the word from which the name Romeo derives), kept Rome’s imperial traditions alive.

在君士坦丁堡，讲希腊语的皇帝们（我们称之为拜占庭人，尽管他们称自己为“罗马人”（Rhōmaioi，罗密欧这个名字的来源））保留了罗马帝国的传统。

The city’s Golden Gate was a Roman-style monumental gateway and the ceremonial entrance for victorious emperors.

这座城市的金门是一座罗马风格的纪念性大门，也是凯旋皇帝的礼仪入口。

Heraclius entered Constantinople through it after defeating the Persians (the residents of modern-day Iran) in 628.

希拉克略在 628 年击败波斯人（现代伊朗的居民）后通过这里进入君士坦丁堡。

The ensuing celebrations included a parade of four captured elephants before the delighted populace.

随后的庆祝活动包括四头捕获的大象在高兴的民众面前游行。

Permanent Roman-style triumphal arches returned to the West with the Renaissance fascination with imperial Rome.

永久性的罗马式凯旋门带着文艺复兴时期对罗马帝国的迷恋回到了西方。

One of the earliest and most spectacular still stands at Castel Nuovo in Naples, not far from Misenum, where Pliny commanded the imperial fleet centuries earlier.

最早、最壮观的遗迹之一矗立在那不勒斯的新堡，距离米塞努姆不远，几个世纪前普林尼曾在那里指挥帝国舰队。

After conquering the city, Alfonso V of Aragon entered it in triumph in 1443.

阿拉贡国王阿方索五世征服这座城市后，于 1443 年凯旋而入。

A decade later, work began on the marble arch that now forms the castle’s entrance.

十年后，现在构成城堡入口的大理石拱门开始动工。

Its reliefs show Alfonso’s triumphal entry, while an inscription proclaims him Invictus : unconquered, invincible.

它的浮雕展示了阿方索凯旋而归的情景，而铭文则宣称他“不败”：不可征服，所向无敌。

The fashion spread outward from Naples.

这种时尚从那不勒斯向外传播。

Western kings, princes, and popes increasingly made ceremonial entries beneath temporary triumphal arches that associated them with Rome’s emperors.

西方国王、王子和教皇越来越多地在临时凯旋门下举行仪式，将他们与罗马皇帝联系在一起。

Most arches disappeared after the festivities, but one spectacular exception survives on paper.

大多数拱门在庆祝活动结束后就消失了，但有一个引人注目的例外留在了纸面上。

In 1515, the Habsburg emperor Maximilian I (1459 to 1519) commissioned Albrecht Dürer, one of the era’s great artists, to create an enormous printed Triumphal Arch .

1515 年，哈布斯堡王朝皇帝马克西米利安一世（Maximilian I，1459 年至 1519 年）委托当时最伟大的艺术家之一阿尔布雷希特·丢勒 (Albrecht Dürer) 创作一座巨大的印刷凯旋门。

The result was not a building but a monumental woodcut whose panels turned Maximilian’s ancestry, territories, wars, and imperial ambitions into the visual language of a Roman triumph.

结果不是一座建筑，而是一幅巨大的木刻，其镶板将马克西米利安的血统、领土、战争和帝国野心变成了罗马胜利的视觉语言。

Dürer made his entire reign into an arch.

丢勒把他的整个统治变成了一个拱门。

Three centuries later, Napoleon gave Roman triumphalism its grandest modern expression.

三个世纪后，拿破仑为罗马的必胜主义赋予了最宏伟的现代表现。

In 1806, he ordered the Arc de Triomphe to commemorate his victory at Austerlitz.

1806年，他下令修建凯旋门以纪念他在奥斯特里茨的胜利。

“You will return home through arches of triumph,” he told his soldiers.

“你们将通过凯旋门回家，”他告诉他的士兵们。

Its sculptures show French armies marching to war, defeating foreign enemies, and returning victorious.

它的雕塑展示了法国军队行进战争、击败外敌、凯旋而归的情景。

Battle and general names cover its surfaces.

战斗和一般名称覆盖其表面。

The imperial symbolism is unmistakable.

帝国的象征意义是显而易见的。

It has also proved remarkably durable, turning up in one of the least likely places on earth: North Korea.

事实证明，它也非常耐用，出现在地球上最不可能出现的地方之一：朝鲜。

Kim Il Sung’s enormous Arch of Triumph in Pyongyang, completed for his 70th birthday in 1982, resembles the Arc de Triomphe but deliberately surpasses it in height.

金日成在平壤建造的巨大凯旋门于 1982 年为他的 70 岁生日而竣工，它与凯旋门相似，但故意在高度上超越它。

It commemorates the official story of Kim Il Sung’s heroic struggle against Japanese rule.

它纪念金日成反抗日本统治的英勇斗争的官方故事。

That said, it is important to be clear about what we mean by a triumphal arch.

也就是说，重要的是要弄清楚凯旋门的含义。

The issue is not simply the arch form itself — the geometry — because if it were, every McDonald’s in the country would be a double monument to victory.

问题不仅仅是拱形本身——几何形状——因为如果是这样，全国的每一家麦当劳都将成为胜利的双重纪念碑。

In the same way, twisting a piece of metal into a ring does not inherently make it a wedding ring.

同样，将一块金属拧成戒指并不一定意味着它就是结婚戒指。

What qualifies it as one is the purpose, promise, and meaning attached to it.

使它成为一个东西的因素是它所附加的目的、承诺和意义。

The problem lies in the designation, program, and use attached to this particular arch.

问题在于这个特定拱门的名称、程序和用途。

As I mentioned, Trump insists on calling his fornix a triumphal arch.

正如我提到的，特朗普坚持称他的穹窿为凯旋门。

That characterization inevitably associates it with the arches in Paris and Pyongyang, which celebrate military victory and political authority.

这种特征不可避免地将其与巴黎和平壤的拱门联系起来，这些拱门庆祝军事胜利和政治权威。

That is why the president’s fornix is so monumentally ill-advised.

这就是为什么总统的穹窿如此不明智。

It mistakes triumphalism for the founders’ own understanding of what the American Revolution and independence meant.

它错误地将必胜主义视为创始人对美国革命和独立意义的理解。

Americans have always borrowed symbols from ancient Rome.

美国人一直借用古罗马的符号。

George Washington was often compared to Cincinnatus, and even today enormous bronze fasces flank the Speaker’s chair in the House of Representatives.

乔治·华盛顿经常被比作辛辛纳特斯，即使在今天，众议院议长的椅子两侧仍然有巨大的青铜饰带。

Americans have had no objection to borrowing Roman architectural forms, either.

美国人也不反对借用罗马建筑形式。

What they have rarely borrowed, however, is the Roman triumphal program: the monumental celebration of victory over a defeated enemy.

然而，他们很少借用罗马的凯旋纲领：庆祝战胜被击败的敌人的纪念活动。

The exceptions help us see the rule.

例外可以帮助我们了解规则。

The clearest expression of a triumphal arch in America was New York’s temporary Dewey Arch , modeled on the Arch of Titus and erected for the land parade on Sept.

美国凯旋门最清晰的表现是纽约的临时杜威凯旋门，它仿照提图斯凯旋门，为 9 月 17 日的陆地阅兵而建。

30, 1899, to celebrate Adm.

1899 年 12 月 30 日，庆祝海军上将。

Dewey’s victory over Spain at Manila Bay.

杜威在马尼拉湾战胜西班牙。

The arch quickly deteriorated, and plans to replace it with a permanent version failed to gain support.

拱门很快就损坏了，用永久性版本取代它的计划未能获得支持。

New York’s temporary Victory Arch of 1918, modeled on the Arch of Constantine, and Newport News’ Victory Arch of 1919, rebuilt in stone in 1962, belong to the same broad family of victory arches, though both joined victory to the commemoration of returning troops and the war dead.

仿照君士坦丁凯旋门而建的 1918 年纽约临时胜利拱门，以及 1962 年用石头重建的 1919 年纽波特纽斯胜利拱门，都属于同一个胜利拱门家族，不过两者都将胜利与回国军队和战争死难者的纪念联系在一起。

In Hartford, by contrast, the permanent Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Arch commemorates the service and sacrifice of Union soldiers and sailors rather than their victory.

相比之下，在哈特福德，永久的士兵和水手纪念拱门是为了纪念联邦士兵和水手的服务和牺牲，而不是他们的胜利。

Brooklyn’s Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Arch is a more complicated case: Inscribed “To the Defenders of the Union, 1861–1865,” the arch’s memorial program also monumentalizes Union victory in the Civil War, as the Arch of Constantine in Rome did.

布鲁克林的士兵和水手纪念拱门是一个更复杂的情况：拱门的纪念项目刻有“联邦捍卫者，1861-1865”，也纪念了联邦在内战中的胜利，就像罗马的君士坦丁凯旋门一样。

The pattern is clear: Permanent American arches called “triumphal” usually commemorate a person, a sacrifice, a civic benefaction, or peace rather than monumentalizing victory over a defeated enemy.

这种模式很明显：被称为“凯旋”的美国永久性拱门通常是为了纪念一个人、一项牺牲、一项公民慈善事业或和平，而不是纪念战胜被击败的敌人。

America likes arches, as people everywhere do, but it puts them to purposes other than the monumental humiliation of a defeated enemy.

美国喜欢拱门，就像世界各地的人们一样，但它把拱门用于其他目的，而不是对战败的敌人进行巨大的羞辱。

The general absence of triumphalism becomes more evident when we consider what this country has never built.

当我们考虑这个国家从未建设过的东西时，普遍缺乏必胜主义就变得更加明显。

Have you ever seen an arch dedicated to the conquest of an Indigenous nation?

您见过致力于征服土著民族的拱门吗？

An Arch of the Sioux Wars, or an Arch of Indian Conquest?

苏族战争的拱门，还是印第安征服的拱门？

Despite the rhetoric, the declaration’s infamous reference to the “merciless Indian Savages” produced no American equivalent of Titus’s monument to the destruction of Jerusalem.

尽管有这样的言辞，但宣言中对“无情的印度野蛮人”的臭名昭著的提及并没有在美国产生类似提图斯耶路撒冷毁灭纪念碑的效果。

Even the soaring arch in St. Louis, which for some represents a legacy of conquest and displacement, frames territorial expansion as a “Gateway to the West” rather than a military triumph over Indigenous peoples.

即使是圣路易斯高耸的拱门，对某些人来说代表着征服和流离失所的遗产，也将领土扩张视为“通往西方的门户”，而不是对土著人民的军事胜利。

And in any case, it looks nothing like a Roman arch.

无论如何，它看起来一点也不像罗马拱门。

Even as the United States expanded through conquest, Americans generally described that expansion in the language of idealism and enlightenment.

即使美国通过征服实现扩张，美国人也普遍用理想主义和启蒙主义的语言来描述这种扩张。

Trump’s fornix , by contrast, revives a more explicit language of winners and losers, fixing victory and defeat in stone and memorializing former opponents as permanent enemies or, shall we say, arch enemies.

相比之下，特朗普的穹窿则复兴了一种更明确的赢家和输家语言，将胜利和失败牢牢钉在石头上，并将以前的对手作为永久的敌人，或者我们可以说，宿敌来纪念。

The distinction, then, is not between arches and no arches, but between commemoration and triumphalism.

那么，区别不在于有拱门和没有拱门，而在于纪念和必胜主义之间。

Distinguishing a wartime opponent from a permanent enemy — and victory from subjection — is not, I hasten to add, some fashionably “woke” presentist idea projected back onto the founders.

我急忙补充说，区分战时对手和永久敌人，以及胜利和屈服，并不是某种时尚的“觉醒”当下主义思想投射回创始人身上的。

America’s revolutionary generation insisted on the distinction repeatedly, eloquently, and explicitly.

美国的革命一代反复、雄辩、明确地坚持这种区别。

No one said so better than Thomas Paine, the visionary author of Common Sense and so much else.

没有人比托马斯·潘恩（Thomas Paine）说得更好，他是《常识》和其他许多著作的富有远见的作者。

As he insisted at the outset of that revolutionary pamphlet, “the cause of America is in a great measure the cause of all mankind,” not least because America’s cause was not conquest.

正如他在那本革命小册子开头所坚持的那样，“美国的事业在很大程度上是全人类的事业”，尤其是因为美国的事业不是征服。

Conquest was Britain’s aim.

征服是英国的目标。

It was imperial Britain that was fighting for supremacy, to keep Americans as subjects and compel their obedience.

英国帝国正在争夺霸权，让美国人成为臣民并强迫他们服从。

The fledgling United States, by contrast, was fighting for freedom, to cease being subject and govern itself.

相比之下，刚刚起步的美国正在为自由而战，不再受制于人，实现自我管理。

As Paine put it with extraordinary clarity, “We fight neither for revenge nor conquest.” Indeed, “ Our plan is peace for ever .” Independence would allow America to separate from Britain, to make peace with it, come into its own, and engage with other nations thereafter as one sovereign people with another.

正如潘恩极其清晰地指出的那样：“我们战斗既不是为了复仇，也不是为了征服。”事实上，“我们的计划是永远和平。”独立将使美国能够与英国分离，与英国讲和，独立，并在此后作为一个主权人民与另一个国家接触。

The Declaration of Independence says essentially the same thing.

《独立宣言》基本上说了同样的事情。

Its aspiration was not to reverse the hierarchy between Britain and America but to abolish it, claiming for the new nation a “separate and equal station” among the powers of the earth.

它的愿望不是扭转英国和美国之间的等级制度，而是废除它，并声称新国家在地球列强中享有“独立和平等的地位”。

Its extraordinary formulation of the desired relationship with Britain was “Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.”

它对与英国的理想关系的非凡表述是“战争中的敌人，和平中的朋友”。

Imagine the opposite.

想象一下相反的情况。

Had Britain won the war, a triumphal arch in London would have made perfect sense.

如果英国赢得了战争，伦敦的凯旋门就完全有意义了。

Britain was trying to force its rebellious subjects back into obedience.

英国试图迫使叛逆的臣民重新服从。

That is precisely the sort of victory commemorated by Rome’s triumphal arches and, later, Napoleon’s.

这正是罗马凯旋门和后来拿破仑凯旋门所纪念的胜利。

For the fledgling breakaway republic to reverse that conceit and build such a monument here, much less 250 years after the fact, seems perverse — it’s like celebrating your escape from a bully by posing with your foot on his neck.

对于这个刚刚脱离的共和国来说，扭转这种自负并在这里建造这样一座纪念碑，更不用说事后 250 年了，这似乎有些反常——这就像把脚踩在恶霸的脖子上摆姿势来庆祝你逃离恶霸一样。

Roman precedent points to a way out of Trump’s predicament, however.

然而，罗马的先例指出了摆脱特朗普困境的出路。

Not every American arch is triumphal, nor was every Roman one.

并非每一个美国拱门都是胜利的，罗马拱门也不是。

Many tourists and historians alike use the term triumphal arch loosely, even carelessly.

许多游客和历史学家都宽松甚至粗心地使用凯旋门这个词。

The reality is that many so-called triumphal arches scattered around the former Roman Empire are honorific arches, monumental city gates, or arches commemorating an imperial visit or benefaction.

现实情况是，散布在前罗马帝国各地的许多所谓的凯旋门都是荣誉拱门、纪念性城门或纪念帝国访问或恩惠的拱门。

The Arch of Trajan at Ancona , for example, did not celebrate anyone’s defeat.

例如，安科纳的图拉真凯旋门并没有庆祝任何人的失败。

It honored the emperor for improving the city’s harbor at his own expense.

它表彰了皇帝自费改善城市港口的行为。

Hadrian’s Arch at Athens likewise honored an emperor as a benefactor of the city, not as the conqueror of an enemy.

雅典的哈德良凯旋门同样将皇帝视为城市的恩人，而不是敌人的征服者。

Even the Arch of Germanicus at Saintes , named for one of Rome’s most celebrated generals, commemorated no military victory.

即使是圣特斯的日耳曼尼库斯凯旋门（以罗马最著名的将军之一的名字命名）也没有纪念任何军事胜利。

Arches like these celebrated new infrastructure projects, imperial benefactions — what we call federal grants today — and the general prosperity of the state.

像这些拱门一样庆祝新的基础设施项目、帝国的捐赠——我们今天所说的联邦拨款——以及国家的总体繁荣。

So here’s the proposal: If program and use determine meaning, change the program.

所以这里是建议：如果程序和用途决定了意义，那就改变程序。

If Trump is going to have his fornix built in Washington, D.C., there is still time to pivot, to change the sculpture and the story behind it.

如果特朗普打算在华盛顿特区建造他的穹窿，那么仍然有时间进行调整，改变雕塑及其背后的故事。

The president can have his arch without making it triumphal.

总统可以在不取得胜利的情况下拥有自己的拱门。

Call it an honorific arch.

称之为荣誉拱门。

Let it celebrate the success of the American project without advertising anyone else’s humiliation.

让它庆祝美国项目的成功，而不是宣传其他人的耻辱。

The Romans, after all, provided perfectly good precedents for that too, even in arches conventionally called triumphal.

毕竟，罗马人也为此提供了完美的先例，甚至在传统上称为凯旋门的拱门中也是如此。

At Benevento, Trajan’s arch commemorates his victory over the Dacians, but it also gives prominence to his civil achievements, depicting him dispensing benefits to Italian children and inaugurating a new highway.

在贝内文托，图拉真拱门纪念他对达契亚人的胜利，但也突出了他的民事成就，描绘了他为意大利儿童提供福利并开辟了一条新高速公路。

Trajan’s arch celebrates public works and generosity rather than enemies crushed beneath Roman feet.

图拉真拱门庆祝公共工程和慷慨，而不是庆祝被压在罗马脚下的敌人。

That, too, provided a Roman model for commemoration.

这也提供了罗马的纪念模式。

Monumental state arches, whether triumphal or honorific, pose another problem, one the Romans themselves noticed: sheer size.

纪念性的国家拱门，无论是凯旋门还是荣誉拱门，都会带来另一个问题，罗马人自己也注意到了这个问题：巨大的尺寸。

In the later first century A.D., the emperor Domitian was particularly fond of arches.

公元一世纪后期，图密善皇帝特别喜欢拱门。

According to his biographer Suetonius, he erected tantos ac tot (so many and such enormous ones) throughout Rome, decorating them with chariots and the insignia of triumph, that eventually some anonymous Roman wag got fed up and scrawled a word in Greek on one of them.

根据他的传记作者苏托尼乌斯的说法，他在罗马各处竖立了 tantos ac tot（如此之多、如此巨大），用战车和凯旋徽章装饰它们，最终一些匿名的罗马小丑厌倦了，在其中一个上用希腊语潦草地写了一个词。

What did he write?

他写了什么？

The single Greek word arkei : “Enough!” Greek speakers who knew Latin could hear the pun on arcus , “arch.” Suetonius thought the joke worth preserving.

希腊语单词 arkei ：“够了！”懂拉丁语的希腊语人士可以听到 arcus 的双关语“拱门”。苏托尼乌斯认为这个笑话值得保留。

Domitian’s critic was not objecting to arches as such, but to tantos ac tot , too many and too big, monumental self-fornication swollen beyond taste into absurdity.

图密善的批评者并不是反对拱门本身，而是反对“tantos ac tot”，太多、太大、巨大的自我淫乱，超出了品味，变成了荒谬。

Even imperial Rome, in other words, had limits.

换句话说，即使是罗马帝国也有局限性。

But the arch’s intended use may turn out to be stranger still.

但拱门的预期用途可能会更加奇怪。

Trump now says that, at the “strong request” of the military, his fornix will double as a “Military Complex/Triumphal Arch.” According to our president, it is to house and deploy drones, accommodate snipers on its roof and plaza, and store large quantities of sniper ammunition.

特朗普现在表示，应军方的“强烈要求”，他的穹窿将兼作“军事综合体/凯旋门”。根据我们总统的说法，它是为了安置和部署无人机，在屋顶和广场上安置狙击手，并储存大量狙击弹药。

Now, if an arch’s program and use determine its meaning, then a military installation leaves rather less room for ambiguity.

现在，如果拱门的功能和用途决定了它的含义，那么军事设施留下的歧义空间就少得多。

So if Trump’s plan comes to fruition, we will have no choice about what to call the thing.

因此，如果特朗普的计划得以实现，我们将别无选择如何称呼这件​​事。

Mike Fontaine is a professor of classics at Cornell University and director of its Program on Freedom and Free Societies.

迈克·方丹（Mike Fontaine）是康奈尔大学古典学教授，也是该大学自由与自由社会项目的主任。

He is the translator of Cicero’s How to Tell a Joke , which explains how politicians can wield humor to win a room, an argument, even an election.

他是西塞罗的《如何讲一个笑话》的翻译，这本书解释了政客如何运用幽默来赢得席位、争论，甚至选举。

His latest book, How to Speak Freely , was published by Princeton University Press on Sept.

他的最新著作《如何自由地说话》于 9 月由普林斯顿大学出版社出版。

29, 2026.

2026 年 29 日。