HAVE yu ever heardf the Seven-League Bts， the bts in whichne culd take many miles at a single step？
Well， there is a still bigger bt； it isver five hundred miles lng， and it is inthe Mediterranean Sea.
N， it"s nt a real bt， but it wuld lk likene if yu were miles high in an airplane and lking dwn upn it.
It is called Italy.
Smething very imprtant happened in Italy， nt lng after the Firstlympiad in Greece. It was s imprtant that it was called the Year 1， and fr a thusand years peple cunted frm it as the Greeks did frm the Firstlympiad and as we d nw frm the birthf Christ. This thing that happened was nt the birthf a man， hwever. It was the birthf a city， and this city was called Rme.
The histryf Rme starts with stries that we knw are fairy talesr myths in the same way that the histryf Greece des. Hmer tld abut the wanderingsf the Greek，dysseus. A great many years later a pet named Virgil tld abut the wanderingsf a Trjan named ？neas.
？neas fled frm Try when that city was burning dwn and startedff t find a new hme. Finally after several years， he came t Italy and the muthf a river called the Tiber. There ？neas met the daughterf the man wh was rulingver that cuntry， a girl by the namef Lavinia， and married her， and they lived happily ever after. The childrenf ？neas and Lavinia ruledver the land， and they had children， and their children had children， and their children had children， until at last by twins were brn. These twins were named Rmulus and Remus. Here endeth the first partf the stry and the truble begins， fr they did nt live happily ever after.
At the time the twins were brn， a man had stlen the kingdm， and he feared that these tw bys might grw up and take his stlen kingdm away frm him. S he put the twins in a basket and set them aflatn the river Tiber， hping that they might be carriedut t sear upset and be drwned. This， he thught， was nearly all right， s lng as he didn"t kill them with hiswn hands. But theRmulus and Remus with the wlf ( 和母狼在一起的罗慕 洛、瑞摩斯 )basket drifted ashre insteadf gingut t sear upsetting， and a mther wlf fund the twins and nursed them as if they were herwn babies. A wdpecker als helped and fed them berries. At last a shepherd fund them and brught them up as if they were hiswn sns until they grew up and became men. This sunds a gd deal like the stryf Paris wh was leftut t die and was fund and brught up by a shepherd als.
Eachf the twins then wished t build a city. But they culd nt agree whichne was t d it， and in quarrelingver the matter， Rmulus killed hiswn twin brther Remus. Rmulus then built the city by the Tiber River，n the spt where he and his brther had been saved and nursed by the mther wlf. Here there were seven hills. This was in 753 B.C.， and he named the city Rma after hiswn name， and the peple wh lived there were called Rmans. That is why， ever afterward， the Rman kings always said they were descended frm the Trjan her ？neas， the great-great-great-grandfatherf Rmulus.
Dn"t yu believe this stry？ Neither d I. But it is such anld，ld stry everyne is suppsed t have heard it even thugh it isnly a legend.
Inrder t get peple fr the city which he had started， it is said that Rmulus invited all the thieves and bad men wh had escaped frm jail t cme and live in Rme， prmising them that they wuld be safe there.
Then as nnef the men had wives， and there were n wmen in his new city， Rmulus thught up a scheme t get the men wives. He invited sme peple called Sabines， wh lived nearby， bth men and wmen， t cme t Rme t a big party.
They accepted， and a great feast was spread. In the middlef the feast， when everyne was eating and drinking， a signal was given， and eachf the Rmans16 A Bad Beginning 83seized a Sabine wman fr his wife and ranff with her.
The Sabine husbands immediately prepared themselves fr war against the Rmans， wh had stlen their wives. When the battle had begun between the tw armies， the Sabine wmen ranut in the midstf the fighting between their new andld husbands and begged them bth t stp. They said they had cme t lve their new husbands and wuld nt return t theirld hmes.
What d yu thinkf that？
It sunds like a pretty bad beginning fr a new city， desn"t it？ and yu may well wnder hw Rme turnedut-a city that started with Rmulus killing his brther and that was settled by escaped prisners wh stle the wivesf their neighbrs. We"ll see if the Rmans cntinued t d such wicked things as their city grewlder.
【中文阅读】
你 曾 听 说 过 童 话 中 的 七 里 格 靴 吗？ 人 穿 上 这 双 靴 子， 可 以 一 步 跨 出 好 几 英 里呢！
还有一只更大的靴子，有五百多英里长，就在地中海。 当然，它并不是真正的靴子。但是，如果你坐在飞机上从离地面几英里高的空中往下看，它看上去就像只靴子。 它叫意大利。
在希腊第一个奥林匹亚德后不久，意大利发生了一件大事。这件事非常重大， 以至于人们把那一年称为意大利的第一年。意大利人从这一年开始纪年，持续了 一千年。就像希腊人从第一个奥林匹亚德开始纪年和我们从耶稣诞生开始纪年一样。 不过，这件大事并不是哪个人诞生了，而是一个城市诞生了，这个城市叫罗马。
和希腊历史一样，罗马历史是从神话故事开始的。荷马讲述了希腊英雄奥德修 斯的流浪故事。很多年以后，一个名叫维吉尔的诗人讲述了一个名叫埃涅阿斯的特 洛伊人的流浪故事。
特洛伊城被烧毁时，埃涅阿斯逃离了那里，开始寻找新的家园。经过几年的漂 泊，他最终来到了意大利台伯河的河口处。在那儿他遇见了此地统治者的女儿 ，一 个名叫勒维妮娅的姑娘，并娶她为妻，从此以后过上了幸福的生活。后来，埃涅阿 斯和勒维妮娅的孩子统治着这块土地，他们的孩子有了自己的孩子，孩子的孩子也 有了孩子，孩子的孩子也有了孩子，直到最后一对孪生兄弟出生了，一个名叫罗慕 洛，一个名叫瑞摩斯。到这里，故事的第一部分就结束了，而不幸却开始了，因为 他们从此以后再没过上幸福的生活。
在双胞胎出生的时候，有个人窃取了王位，他担心这两个男孩长大后会把王位 夺回去，于是，他把双胞胎放在一个篮子里，丢进了台伯河里任他们随水漂流，他希望篮子会顺水漂到大海，或干脆翻在河里，把他们淹死。他认为只要他没有亲手 杀死他们也就没什么大不了的。但是，篮子既没有漂到海里，也没有翻在河里，而 是漂到了岸上，有一只母狼发现了双胞胎，还把他们当做自己的孩子一样给他们喂 奶，有只啄木鸟也帮着给他们喂浆果。最后有个牧羊人发现了他们，把他们当做自 己的儿子抚养成人。这个故事听上去很像前面说过的帕里斯的故事，他也是被丢弃 在荒野等死，后来被一个牧羊人发现并抚养长大。
这对双胞胎长大后各自都想建一座城市，但是由谁去建城呢？俩人互不让步， 争执不休。罗慕洛杀死了自己的孪生兄弟瑞摩斯。于是，罗慕洛在台伯河边建起了 一座城市，地点就在母狼救起这对孪生兄弟并喂养他俩的地方，那里有七座小山。 那是公元前 753 年，他以自己的名字将此城命名为罗马，城里的居民就称为罗马 人。这就是为什么从此以后，罗马的国王们总是说他们是特洛伊英雄埃涅阿斯的后 裔--因为他是罗慕洛的曾曾曾祖父。
你不相信这个故事吧？我也不相信。虽然它只是一个传说，但是这是一个很古 老、很古老的故事，大概每个人都听说过。
据说，为了让人们来他创建的城市定居，罗慕洛欢迎所有越狱的盗贼和罪犯来 罗马居住，并保证他们在罗马的人身安全。
当时这些男人都没有妻子，这座新城里也没有女人，于是罗慕洛想出一个诡计 帮这些人能娶上妻子。他邀请了一些住在附近地区的萨宾人，包括男人和女人来罗 马参加一个盛大的宴会。
他们接受了邀请，盛宴也准备好了。宴会进行到一半，当所有人都在大吃大喝 的时候，突然有人发出一个暗号，罗马人立即动手，每个人抢了一个萨宾女人，把 她们当做妻子带跑了。
萨宾的男人们立即召集在一起，要和抢了他们妻子的罗马人开战。当两军刚打 起来时，萨宾女人们忽然跑出来，站在正交战的前任丈夫和现任丈夫之间，请求双 方停战。她们说自己已经爱上了现任丈夫，不愿意回到她们原来的家了。
你怎么看这件事？ 一个新城就这样开始建起来，似乎够糟的，不是吗？你很可能在想罗马以后会变成什么样子呢--这个城市以罗慕洛杀死自己的兄弟为开端，接着住进了逃犯， 后来他们又抢了邻居的妻子。我们倒要看看，在罗马城以后的历史中，罗马人是不 是还会继续做那些邪恶的事情。