作为现代建构的罗马帝国“衰亡”与“转型”——百年未有之大变局背景下的重读

The“Decline”and“Transformation”of the Roman Empire as Modern Constructions,Rereading under the Profound Change Unseen in a Hundred Years

对西部罗马帝国晚期这一历史时段,历史学家提出了大相径庭的叙事。爱德华·吉本提出的罗马帝国“衰亡”论,反映的是对大英帝国可能重蹈罗马帝国覆辙的焦虑和对“蛮族”的惊恐。彼得·布朗等学者通过“古代晚期”历史研究,用“罗马世界转型”取代“衰亡”叙事的努力,则体现了二战后西方致力于文化共融、族裔多元的“政治正确”。千禧年前后,“衰亡”叙事的强力复兴,是否意味着时代精神剧变(后911时代)后,那个曾经开放、包容、多元化的西方已在远去?在百年未有之大变局视域下,重新审视上述不同历史叙事背后的不同时代环境,有助于我们冷静的理解与预测变局中欧美行为逻辑的可能走向。

Historians presented varied narratives to portrait the Later Roman Empire.Edward Gibbon’s famous“Decline and Fall”narrative,reflected the anxieties that the Great British Empire would fall as the Great Roman Empire once did and the“Barbarians”would shake and overthrow civilization.While the pioneers of the Late Antiquity Studies prefer the“Transformation of Roman World”to the“Decline”narrative,which was considered the outcome of their pluralism“political correctness”as well as serious scholarly hardships.However,the“decline”narrative seems to be coming back in the last two decades,which suggests a change in the Zeitgeist:Could it be that the west inclines to forsake its once open and tolerant cultural climate?To reread those different narratives in different historical context,under the profound change that has not been seen in a hundred years,would be of great help for us to understand the possible dispositions of western countries recently.