By 600AD the Western Roman Empire was gone leaving behind the eastern Empire also known as the Byzantine Empire.

600年时，西罗马帝国解体，剩下了东罗马帝国也就是拜占庭帝国。

As Gibbon laboured to explain 250 years ago, the eastern empire based in Constantinople continued for almost another millennium.

正如吉本在 250 年前努力解释的那样，以君士坦丁堡为基地的东方帝国又延续了将近一个千年。

Proudly tracing its history back to Rome's foundation on the morning of April 21st 753 BC, almost all of the Eastern Empire had belonged to the Alexander the Great's empire in 4 century BC.

它骄傲地把自己的历史追溯到罗马建立之初，也就是公元前753年的四月21日的那个早晨，几乎所有东罗马帝国的人都是公元前4世纪亚历山大大帝的后裔。

In 395 the Roman Empire was divided in two – a Western Empire with Rome as its center, and an Eastern Empire with the new city of Constantinople as its capital.

395 年，罗马帝国一分为二——以罗马为中心的西帝国和以新城君士坦丁堡为首都的东帝国。

But the great city was new to him; he had gone from a provincial school to a military college, and thence direct to the Eastern Empire; and he promised himself a variety of delights in this world for exploration.

但是这座伟大的城市对他来说是陌生的； 他从一所省立学校转到一所军事学院， 然后直接去了东帝国； 他向自己许诺要在这个世界上探索各种乐趣。