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  3. Shortly after the death of emperor Theodosius in 395 A.D., the Roman Empire

Shortly after the death of emperor Theodosius in 395 A.D., the Roman Empire

游客2023-12-25  12
问题     Shortly after the death of emperor Theodosius in 395 A.D., the Roman Empire was permanently divided into Eastern and Western empires. By the fifth century A.D., the power of the Western Roman Empire had declined considerably, though the Eastern Roman Empire centered in Byzantium continued to flourish. Various problems contributed to this undermining of the West.
    The accessions of Arcadius and Honorius, sons of Theodosius, as emperors in the East and West, respectively, illustrate the unfortunate pattern of child heirs that had unfavorable effects for both empires. When Arcadius died in 408, he was succeeded by his seven-year-old son, Theodosius II. Reigning until 423, Honorius was succeeded by his nephew Valentinian III, who was only five. Because of their young ages, Theodosius’ sons and grandsons could not rule without older advisors and supervising regents upon whom they naturally became dependent and from whom they were unable to break away after reaching maturity. As powerful individuals vied for influence and dominance at court, the general welfare was often sacrificed to private rivalries and ambitions. Moreover, it was the women of the dynasty who were the more capable and interesting characters. Holding the keys to succession through birth and inheritance, they became active players in the political arena.
    Compared with the East, however, the West faced a greater number of external threats along more permeable frontiers. Whereas the East could pursue war and diplomacy more effectively with their enemies on the long eastern frontier, the West was exposed to the more volatile tribal Germanic peoples on a frontier that stretched along the Rhine and Danube rivers for 1,000 miles. The East, however, only had to guard the last 500 miles of the Danube. In addition, the East had many more human and material resources with which to pursue its military and diplomatic objectives. The East also had a more deeply rooted unity in the Greek culture of the numerous Greek and Near Eastern cities that Rome had inherited from earlier Grecian empires. Latin culture had not achieved comparable penetration of the less urbanized West outside of Italy. The penetration of Germanic culture from the north had been so extensive along the permeable Rhine-Danube frontier that it was often difficult to distinguish between barbarians (speakers of German and other languages unrelated to Latin) and Romans in those regions by the fifth century anyway.
    One of the most outstanding features at the beginning of this period was the prominence of Germanic generals in the high command of the Roman Imperial army. The trend became significant, and several practical reasons can explain it. The foremost probably was the sheer need for military manpower that made it attractive to recruit bands of Germanic peoples for the armies, which, in turn, gave able chieftains and warlords the opportunity to gain imperial favor and advance in rank. Second, one way to turn Germanic chieftains from potential enemies into loyal supporters was to offer them a good position in the Roman military. Third, although Theodosius had risen to power as a military leader, he was also a cultured aristocrat and preferred to emphasize the civilian role of the emperor and to rely for protection on Germanic generals whose loyalties were primarily to him, their patron.  [br] Which of the sentences below best expresses the essential information in the underlined sentence in the passage?
选项 A、As young rulers, the sons and grandsons of Theodosius necessarily depended on older advisors, and as adults, they were unable to rule independently of these advisors.
B、The sons and grandsons of Theodosius were too young to rule and they were without the assistance of older advisors.
C、On reaching maturity, the sons and grandsons of Theodosius attempted to break away from the older officials who had advised them since childhood.
D、Because the sons and grandsons of Theodosius were young when they became rulers, older advisors were able to prevent them from breaking away.
答案 A
解析 画线部分主要提到两个重要信息：一是因为年龄小，狄奥多西的子孙继位时必然需要顾问和监督摄政王辅佐；二是他们长大后，无法摆脱这些顾问和监督摄政王的干涉。因此下列四个选项中A项最能表达画线部分的意思，故答案为A项。文中提到，狄奥多西的子孙们掌权时，有顾问和摄政王的帮助，因此B项“狄奥多西的子孙们掌权时年龄太小，且没有年长顾问的帮助”可排除，C项“狄奥多西的儿子和孙子长大成人后，试图摆脱从小就出谋划策的年长官员”在文中没有提及。D项“由于狄奥多两的子孙在成为统治者时年龄尚小，年长的顾问能够阻止他们摆脱他们的辅佐”在文中未被提及，可排除。
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