【简译】比布鲁斯（朱拜勒，Byblos）

2022-10-27 09:38 作者:神尾智代 0人读过 | 我要投稿

Byblos was the ancient Phoenician port city of Gebal (called Byblos by the Greeks) on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in what is, today, Lebanon. According to the historian Durant, “Byblos thought itself the oldest of all cities; the god El had founded it at the beginning of time, and to the end of its history it remained the religious capital of Phoenicia." Because papyrus was one of the principal articles in its trade, the Greeks took the name of the city as their word for book - biblos - and from their word for books named our Bible - ta biblia - which means 'the books'. Byblos is among the cities listed as candidates for the distinction of 'oldest city in the world' as it has been continuously inhabited for over 7,000 years. Byblos is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

朱拜勒是古代腓尼基人的港口城市比布鲁斯（希腊人称之为比布鲁斯），位于今天黎巴嫩的地中海沿岸。根据历史学家杜兰特的说法，“比布鲁斯的居民认为自己的城市是所有城市中最古老的；伊尔神在时间之初就建立了它，直到其历史结束，它始终是腓尼基的宗教首都”。由于纸莎草是其贸易中的主要物品之一，希腊人将这座城市的名字作为书籍的单词“biblos”，并将圣经称作“ta biblia”，意思是“书”。比布鲁斯被列为“世界上最古老城市”的候选城市之一，因为它已经连续有人居住了7000多年。比布鲁斯已被联合国教科文组织列为世界文化遗产。

城市的起源

The city began as a small fishing village called Gubal or Gebal while the coastal region of the land, which the Greeks named Phoenicia, was known to the inhabitants as Canaan. By 3000 BCE the little village had grown to a prosperous city through trade. The cedars of Lebanon were highly prized by other countries for use in construction, and Byblos became the single most important shipping port for timber to Egypt and elsewhere. Byblos was also the first city to perfect shipbuilding, and it is largely due to the craftsmanship of the shipwrights of Byblos that Phoenicians acquired their fame as sailors and "princes of the sea" (as they are referred to in the biblical book of Ezekiel). It was primarily through trade with Egypt that Byblos grew so incredibly wealthy. The Egyptians flooded Byblos with material wealth but also with aspects of their culture and Egyptian religion.

这座城市最初是一个名为Gubal 或 Gebal（迦巴勒）的小渔村，而这块土地的沿海地区，希腊人称之为腓尼基，当地居民们则称之为迦南。到公元前3000年，这个小村庄已经通过贸易发展成为一个繁荣的城市。黎巴嫩的雪松被其他国家高度重视用于建筑，比布鲁斯成为通往埃及和其他地方最重要的木材运输港口。比布鲁斯也是第一个拥有完善造船业的城市，在很大程度上归功于比布鲁斯造船者的技能，腓尼基人获得了水手和“海洋王子”的美誉（正如圣经《以西结书》中所说）。比布鲁斯之所以如此富有，主要归功于与埃及的贸易。埃及人用物质财富淹没了比布鲁斯，腓尼基文化也对埃及的文化以及宗教等方面产生了影响。

In Egyptian mythology, Byblos is cited as the city where Isis located the body of her dead husband Osiris in the trunk of a tree that had grown around him after his murder by his brother Set. The Phoenicians of Byblos also exported their own tales concerning Phoenician religion, and it is thought that the stories surrounding war in the heavens and an eternal battle between a great god of good and another deity of evil grew out of the Phoenician myths concerning the eternal war between Baal (god of the sky) and Yamm (god of the sea). This myth may have come from the Egyptian tale of the war between Osiris' son Horus and the dark god Set or transference may have gone from the Phoenicians to the Egyptians. The tale of the war in heaven related in the biblical book of Revelation bears many similarities to both these much older myths in the same way that there are many motifs in the Bible borrowed by the scribes who wrote it from earlier tales of other cultures. So closely-knit were the ties between Egypt and Byblos that some historians and scholars have claimed that Byblos was almost an Egyptian colony.

在埃及神话中，比布鲁斯被认为是伊西斯将她死去的丈夫奥西里斯的尸体放在一棵树的树干里的城市，这棵树在他被他的兄弟塞特谋杀后围绕着他生长。比布鲁斯的腓尼基人也输出了自己关于腓尼基宗教的故事，人们认为围绕着天上的战争和一个伟大的善神与另一个恶神之间的永恒战斗的故事是由腓尼基人关于巴勒（天神）和亚姆（海神）之间永恒战争的神话发展而来的。这个神话可能来自埃及的奥西里斯之子荷鲁斯和黑暗之神塞特之间的战争故事，也可能是从腓尼基人转移到埃及人那里的。《圣经》中有关天堂战争的故事与这两个更古老的神话有许多相似之处，同样，《圣经》中的许多主题也是由撰写《圣经》的文士从其他文化的早期故事中借鉴而来的。埃及和比布鲁斯之间的联系是如此紧密，以至于一些历史学家和学者声称比布鲁斯就像是埃及的殖民地。

亚摩利人、希克索斯人（喜克索斯人）和腓尼基人的比布鲁斯

The Amorites burned the city in their invasion of 2150 BCE. After subduing the populace, they rebuilt and settled in the area. Their control of the region ended in 1725 BCE with the invasion of the Hyksos people who ruled until they were driven out by the Egyptians in 1580 BCE. The Egyptians then lay claim to the coast of Canaan.

亚摩利人在公元前2150年的入侵中烧毁了这座城市。在征服了民众之后，他们重建并在该地区定居。公元前1725年，随着希克索斯人的入侵，亚摩利人对该地区的控制结束。直到公元前1580年，希克索斯人被埃及人赶出。埃及人声称占领了迦南海岸。

It is during the period of Egyptian occupation that the Phoenician culture developed arguably their most important contribution to the world: their alphabet of 22 characters which replaced cuneiform in written communication. Through trade, the Phoenician alphabet traveled first to Greece around 800 BCE and then spread to other countries through Greek merchants.

正是在埃及占领期间，腓尼基文化发展了可以说是对世界最重要的贡献：他们22个字符的字母，取代了楔形文字进行书面交流。通过贸易，腓尼基字母在公元前800年左右首先传到希腊，后来被希腊商人传播到其他国家。

比布鲁斯的衰落

Between 1100 and 725 BCE Byblos declined in importance as its sister city, Tyre, grew. After the conquest of the region by Alexander the Great, and the destruction of Tyre in 332 BCE, Byblos again prospered and became completely Hellenized, adopting Greek culture, dress, and language. During the Hellenistic period (330-64 BCE) Byblos became most famous for the production of papyrus which would give it its Greek name. In 64 BCE the region was conquered by the Roman general Pompey the Great and continued as a Roman colony from 64 BCE to 395 CE. The Romans, as usual, improved upon the city they found, ordering the streets and building large temples, Roman baths, and civic gardens.

在公元前1100年至公元前725年间，由于其姐妹城市提尔的发展，比布鲁斯的重要性有所下降。在亚历山大大帝征服该地区，并在公元前332年摧毁提尔之后，比布鲁斯再次繁荣起来，并完全希腊化，逐步采用希腊文化、服饰和语言。在希腊化时期（公元前330-64年），比布鲁斯因生产纸莎草纸而闻名，它的希腊名字也由此而来。公元前64年，该地区被罗马将军庞培大帝征服，从公元前64年到公元前395年一直是罗马的殖民地。罗马人像往常一样，对他们发现的城市进行了改进，整理街道，建造大型寺庙、罗马浴场和市政花园。

After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire controlled Byblos from 395-637 CE when the Muslim Arab invaders took the region and drove the Byzantines out. Under Muslim rule, Byblos steadily declined in wealth and importance. Now known as the city of Jbail, the Muslims considered it of so little importance that they did not even bother to rebuild the defences they had destroyed in taking the city. The great port was virtually ignored for centuries and provided an easy target for invading Crusaders in 1098 CE during the First Crusade. Once the Crusaders had been driven out, the Muslim rulers continued to neglect the city, busying themselves with rule further inland. Byblos was forgotten for centuries until the work of the French historian Ernest Renan brought the city back to light in 1860 CE.

罗马帝国灭亡后，拜占庭帝国在公元395-637年控制了比布鲁斯，后来阿拉伯穆斯林入侵者占领了该地区并将拜占庭人赶走。在穆斯林的统治下，比布鲁斯逐渐失去了它的财富和重要性。阿拉伯穆斯林称其为Jbail，穆斯林认为它不重要，所以他们甚至懒得重建他们在攻占该城时破坏的防御设施。几个世纪以来，这个伟大的港口几乎被忽视了，在公元1098年第一次十字军东征期间，为入侵的十字军提供了一个容易攻击的目标。、十字军被赶走后，穆斯林统治者继续无视这座城市，忙于在内陆地区进行统治。比布鲁斯被遗忘了几个世纪，直到公元1860年法国历史学家欧内斯特·雷南的工作让这座城市重新焕发生机。