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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  16
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 following is NOT identified in the fourth paragraph as a reason the practice arose of making Germanic chieftains generals in the Roman high command?
选项 A、It helped reduce the number of possible enemies against the empire.
B、It helped make it possible to maintain an imperial military force of sufficient size.
C、it was cheaper than recruiting and training Roman generals.
D、It gave Theodosius confidence that his generals would remain loyal while he focused on other matters.
答案 C
解析 第4段第4句提到，给日耳曼将军在罗马军队中提供一个好的职位，可以将潜在的敌人变成忠诚的支持者，因此A项“有助于减少对抗帝国的潜在敌人的数量”是主要原因之一，可排除。第4段第3句提到，最重要的原因可能是对军事力量的绝对需求，给日耳曼将军在罗马军队中提供一个好的职位使得为军队招募日耳曼人变得很有吸引力，从而能够维持罗马帝国的军力，因此B项“帮助维持足够规模的帝国军事力量”是原因之一，可排除。第4段最后一句提到，狄奥多西依赖于日耳曼将军的保护，并且日耳曼将军对其也非常忠诚，因此D项“当狄奥多西专注于其他事务时，他也能放心将军们会保持忠诚”也是原因之一。可排除。C项“比招募和训练罗马将军更便宜”，在文中并未被提及，因此符合题意，正确答案为C项。
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