雙語+MP3|美國學(xué)生世界地理36 死亡而又活著的城市

     Two thousand years ago you could start out on any road anywhere, and if you kept on going far enough you would at last come to a great city in Italy called Rome, for at that time "all roads led to Rome." Rome was then the largest, the richest, the most beautiful, the most important city in the World. It was the capital of the World.
     Rome was built on seven hills, and seven was supposed to be a lucky number. Through Rome runs a river called Tiber, whose waters the Romans thought were ruled over by a god called Father Tiber, to whom they prayed to save them from drowning and shipwreck.
     The old Rome of that time is now dead, mostly in ruins, but there is a saying that Rome will live forever-that it is "Eternal"-and though old Rome is in ruins, there is a new Rome. The new Rome, however, is no longer the capital of the World. It is now only the capital of Italy.
     Rome is still the capital, however, of all Roman Catholics in the World, and the head of all the Roman Catholic churches in the World lives there. He is called the Pope, which means "Papa."
     St. Peter is supposed to have been crucified and his bones buried in Rome. It is said that on this spot a religious service has been held every single day since the time of St. Peter to the present-that is, for about 1,900 years. At first these services had to be held in secret at night, for most of the Romans did not believe in Christ, and any one who did was likely, if caught, to be thrown into prison or even put to death. But over this same spot, many hundreds of years later, was built the largest church in the World. It is called St. Peter's.
     On the top of St. Peter's is an immense dome copied after Brunelleschi's dome in Florence, but much larger. It was built by that great artist Michelangelo, who, I told you, was an architect as well as sculptor and painter. St. Peter's is so large that on the roof is a village of small houses, a village in which live the caretakers of the church.
     The front door of St. Peter's is never closed night or day, but just to the right of that door is another door of bronze that is never opened except every twenty-five years. It is called the Holy Door and it is walled up with stone. At the end of every twenty-five years this wall has to be taken down in order to open the door.
     St. Peter's is so large that thirty services can be carried on at one time without one interfering with another. Inside the church everything is huge, to match the building. The statues of angels are the size of giants and the doves are the size of eagles. There is a bronze statue of St. Peter himself seated on a throne. This is one of the few statues there of natural size. Good Catholics from all over the World, when they come to St. Peter's, kiss the statue's bronze foot. So many millions have kissed it that they have kissed away all his toes.
     At Easter and at other celebrations the inside walls of St. Peter's are hung with crimson silk, thousands of candles burn, choir boys chant and altar boys swing smoke of burning incense to the high roof, while hundreds of priests in gorgeous robes and cardinals in red caps and red gowns and the Pope himself, the head of all the Catholics in the World, in glistening white, move in stately procession down the main aisle to the high altar, over the spot where, 1,900 years before, St. Peter himself was crucified and a Christian would have been afraid to show himself for fear of being killed.


     The Pope lives next door to St. Peter's in an immense house called the Vatican. Your house may have a dozen rooms, or perhaps even a score, but it is said that the Vatican contains more than a thousand rooms. There are so many rooms that probably no one has ever counted them all. Many of the large rooms are filled with famous pictures and sculpture. They are art museums which people may visit. One room is the Pope's private chapel. It is called the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo painted pictures on the ceiling and walls of this chapel. In order to see the pictures on the ceiling comfortably you have to lie flat on your back or look at them in a mirror held in your hand.
     Before the time of St. Peter, when people believed in many gods, another church was built in Rome "To All the Gods." This building is still standing. It is called the Pantheon, which means "All Gods." The Pantheon too has a dome, but it is not like St. Peter's. The dome of St. Peter's is like a giant cup turned upside down. The dome of the Pantheon is like a giant saucer turned upside down. There are no windows at all in the Pantheon, but there is a large hole in the top of the saucer called an "eye" which looks toward heaven, and through this eye the sun shines and the rain falls. It is so high above the floor, however, that the rain scarcely wets the floor beneath, but evaporates before reaching it.


     Most of the buildings in Rome that were built about the time of Christ are in ruins, but the Pantheon is still almost the same as it was when first built. Around and about the very old buildings the dust and dirt and rubbish of the city had collected for two thousand years and had gradually piled higher and higher until the ruins were twenty feet or more lower than the present city, so that it has been necessary to dig them out.
     In those days long ago there was a great market-place in Rome called the Forum. Around the Forum were beautiful palaces, court-houses, temples, and arches. The arches were built so that generals, when they returned from the wars they had fought and won, might ride in triumph through them. One of these arches is called the Arch of Titus. Titus was a Roman Emperor who destroyed the capital city of the Jews called Jerusalem and this arch was built to celebrate the event. Another arch is the Arch of Constantine. Constantine was the first Emperor of Rome to believe in Christ. That was not until three hundred years after Christ had died.


     The old Romans had a peculiar idea of fun. They liked to watch fights between men and wild animals such as lions and tigers, and they liked to see the men and animals kill each other. Sometimes the men were prisoners who had been captured in battle, sometimes they were just Christians whom the Roman Emperors wanted to put to death. So a great stadium was built where the Romans could sit in safety and watch these fights as we watch football or baseball games. This stadium is called the Colosseum and, though it is partly in ruins, most of it is still standing and you can still see the dens where the wild animals were kept before they were let loose into the arena.


     As the Christians were afraid to worship above ground where the Romans would see them, they hid in secret cellar-like places where they could worship as they pleased. Just outside of Rome, underneath the ground, are miles upon miles of these cellar-like rooms where they worshiped and where they were buried when they died. They are called Catacombs. Millions of the Christians were buried in the Catacombs.