We spent a lot of time on the Roman Empire, and in the highlighted yellow, you see the Roman Empire at roughly its maximum extent.

我們在羅馬帝國上花了很多時間，在突出顯示的黃色部分，你可以看到羅馬帝國的大致鼎盛時期。

And on this timeline, you see the Roman Kingdom, and then the Roman Republic, and then the Roman Empire, which ends in the fifth century, although the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, continues on for roughly another 1,000 years.

在這條時間軸上，你可以看到羅馬王國，然後是羅馬共和國，然後是羅馬帝國，羅馬帝國在五世紀結束，但東羅馬帝國，即拜占庭帝國，大約又延續了 1000 年。

Now, we also have depicted here a significant Persian Empire.

現在，我們在這裡還看到了一個重要的波斯帝國。

You have the Parthian Empire, and they were preceded by the Seleucid Empire, and they were succeeded by the Sassanian Empire, but I have the Parthians depicted here on the timeline and on the map.

你們有帕提亞帝國，他們的前身是塞琉古帝國，薩珊帝國繼承了他們，但我在時間軸和地圖上都有帕提亞人的描述。

I also show Han China, both the Eastern and Western Han dynasties you can see on this timeline as well.

我還展示了漢代中國，你也可以在這條時間軸上看到東漢和西漢。

And in India, I show the Maurya Dynasty on the timeline.

在印度，我在時間軸上顯示了毛利王朝。

I don't depict it here on the map, but on the map, I show the Kushan Empire, and I also show it on the timeline.

我沒有在地圖上描繪它，但我在地圖上顯示了貴霜帝國，也在時間軸上顯示了它。

Now, the reason why I wanted to pick these empires at this specific time in the world is to highlight the fact that they weren't operating in complete isolation.

現在，我之所以想選擇世界上這個特定時期的這些帝國，是為了突出這樣一個事實，即它們並不是在完全孤立的情況下運作的。

In fact, as we get to the second and first century BCE, especially as we get into the Common Era, we start seeing a significant amount of trade and interaction between these empires.

事實上，當我們進入公元前二世紀和一世紀，特別是進入公元紀元後，我們開始看到這些帝國之間大量的貿易和互動。

Not to say that there wasn't trade and interaction before that time, but it started to get accelerated, and to a large degree, it got accelerated because you had these contiguous empires that at least within their borders were able to provide some level of stability for someone to travel across roads or travel across borders.

這並不是說在此之前沒有貿易和互動，但貿易和互動開始加速，而且在很大程度上，貿易和互動加速是因為有了這些毗連的帝國，這些帝國至少在其疆域內能夠為人們提供某種程度的穩定，使他們能夠穿越道路或跨越國界。

And so you start to see the emergence of these trading networks.

於是，你開始看到這些交易網絡的出現。

In red, you see trading roads or paths in red, and in blue, you see those paths by sea.

紅色是貿易道路或路徑，藍色是海路。

And this isn't even comprehensive, and even what I showed on the empires, there were many other smaller kingdoms that also existed in the world that I just don't have depicted here.

這還不夠全面，即使是我展示的帝國，世界上還存在許多其他小王國，只是我沒有在這裡描繪出來。

But what this contiguous block of empires allowed is for the trade of goods and ideas, and sometimes collectively, the routes that were used for this trade is referred to as the Silk Road or the Silk Roads, or really, you could say the Silk Routes.

但是，這些連成一片的帝國所允許的是貨物和思想的貿易，有時，用於這種貿易的路線被統稱為絲綢之路或絲綢之路，或者真的可以說是絲綢之路。

And so it's a collective number of paths that people used to trade things.

是以，這是人們用來交易物品的一系列路徑。

Now, why call it silk?

現在，為什麼叫它絲綢？

Well, it all boils down to silk being a major commodity of trade at this time period.

歸根結底，絲綢是這一時期的主要貿易商品。

So if you wanna think about the different things that were traded around the world, this is just a sample of it.

是以，如果你想了解世界各地交易的不同物品，這只是其中的一個樣本。

Silk, which comes from cocoons of these silkworms that eat mulberry leaves, was considered a sign of wealth.

蠶絲是吃桑葉的蠶結的繭，被認為是財富的象徵。

It was considered the finest cloth.

它被認為是最好的布料。

And China had a monopoly on how to make silk for many hundreds of years, even after the period that we were talking about right here.

幾百年來，中國一直壟斷著絲綢的製造，甚至在我們剛才提到的那個時期之後也是如此。

So you can imagine, around the world, people were interested in getting access to that Chinese silk.

是以你可以想象，世界各地的人們都對獲得中國絲綢感興趣。

But silk wasn't the only thing that was being traded.

但絲綢並不是唯一的交易品。

In fact, in order to trade, you need to give something in exchange for even that silk.

事實上，為了進行交易，你甚至需要付出一些東西來換取絲綢。

One of the Chinese motivations for trading with others is having access to horses.

中國人與他人交易的動機之一是獲得馬匹。

Horses were valuable not just for transporting goods, but also in war, especially fighting some of their northern enemies who had access to horses.

馬匹的價值不僅體現在運輸貨物上，還體現在戰爭中，尤其是在與一些擁有馬匹的北方敵人作戰時。

They also were able to get gold from Europe, able to get cotton from India.

他們還能從歐洲獲得黃金，從印度獲得棉花。

In Europe, you also had other manufactured goods.

在歐洲，還有其他製成品。

So you had this fairly vast trading enterprise emerge between these different parts of the world.

於是，在世界不同地區之間出現了這個相當龐大的貿易企業。

And to be clear, some of the things that were traded allowed or facilitated the trade itself.

說白了，有些被交易的東西允許或促進了交易本身。

I mentioned horses were a source of transportation, but camels in particular were very powerful sources of transportation, especially across Central Asia and as you get into the Middle East and Africa, because you have these large swaths of desert.

我提到過馬是一種運輸工具，但駱駝尤其是非常強大的運輸工具，尤其是穿越中亞，進入中東和非洲，因為那裡有大片的沙漠。

Camels could not only carry a lot, but they had a lot of stamina and they did not have to stop for water as frequently.

駱駝不僅能攜帶大量物品，而且耐力很強，不必經常停下來喝水。

In a lot of world history, we focus on the large non-nomadic empires like the Roman Empire and Han China.

在很多世界歷史中，我們都關注羅馬帝國和漢朝這樣的非遊牧大帝國。

But as trade became more important, especially as you go through Central Asia, you could imagine that many of the people who were very good at trading, who were good at moving things, were people who were good at moving themselves, in particular, the nomadic people in Central Asia.

但是，隨著貿易變得越來越重要，尤其是當你穿過中亞時，你可以想象，許多擅長貿易、擅長搬運東西的人都是擅長搬運自己的人，尤其是中亞的遊牧民族。

Many of their cities along these trade routes became more and more wealthy and more and more powerful.

這些貿易路線上的許多城市變得越來越富裕，越來越強大。

Now, as I mentioned, goods were not the only thing that were transported along these routes.

現在，正如我提到的，貨物並不是這些路線上唯一的運輸工具。

One of the not-so-good things was the spread of disease.

其中一件不太好的事情就是疾病的傳播。

So in the historical record, we have two major plagues in Rome during the Roman Empire and we believe these plagues were smallpox, although some people believe it might have been measles.

是以，在歷史記錄中，羅馬帝國時期的羅馬發生過兩次大瘟疫，我們認為這些瘟疫是天花，不過也有人認為可能是麻疹。

And it is believed that it came from traders.

據說它來自商人。

It came from Asia, from the Middle East.

它來自亞洲，來自中東。

And these were significant plagues.

這些都是重要的災難。

And the reason why we think that it was due to trade is that there's some evidence in Han China during this first plague of similar symptoms, of a similar plague.

我們之所以認為這是貿易造成的，是因為在第一次瘟疫期間，有證據表明在漢朝也出現了類似的症狀，發生了類似的瘟疫。

But it really affected Rome.

但它確實影響了羅馬。

In these plagues, it's estimated that as much as 10% of the population might have died.

據估計，在這些瘟疫中，可能有多達 10%的人口死亡。

In certain cities, it might have been 25, 30% of the population.

在某些城市，這一比例可能達到 25%或 30%。

Some historians even point to these plagues as destabilizing the Roman Empire.

一些歷史學家甚至指出，這些瘟疫破壞了羅馬帝國的穩定。

And this is a theme that you'll see often in world history, where if you have a population that doesn't have exposure to something, say smallpox, and all of a sudden they encounter a population that does have exposure, well, that smallpox might wreak havoc.

這也是世界歷史上經常出現的一個主題，如果你有一個人口沒有接觸過某種東西，比如說天花，突然他們遇到了一個接觸過天花的人口，那麼，天花可能會造成嚴重破壞。

But it wasn't just disease.

但這不僅僅是疾病。

You also have the spread of ideas and technology and religion.

還有思想、技術和宗教的傳播。

And the two religions that perhaps benefited the most from the early trade along the Silk Route, or the Silk Roads, were Christianity and Buddhism.

而從絲綢之路早期貿易中受益最大的兩個宗教，或許就是基督教和佛教。

And Buddhism in particular was very appealing to many of these Silk Road merchants.

佛教對許多絲綢之路商人尤其具有吸引力。

The Kushan Empire in particular started to significantly spread Buddhism.

尤其是貴霜帝國開始大力傳播佛教。

In previous videos, we talk about Ashoka sending missionaries.

在之前的視頻中，我們談到了阿育王派遣傳教士的情況。

But the Kushan Empire helped spread Buddhism into China and into the Far East.

但是貴霜帝國幫助佛教傳播到了中國和遠東地區。

So what we talked about in this video was the very beginning of the Silk Road, as we get into the first few centuries BCE, or the first few centuries of the Common Era.

是以，我們在視頻中講述的是絲綢之路的開端，即公元前幾個世紀，也就是公元紀元的前幾個世紀。

But as we'll see, the Silk Road will continue on for many hundreds, or really, over 1,000 years.

但正如我們將看到的，絲綢之路將延續數百年，甚至一千多年。