A Comet Gives Birth to an Empire一颗彗星催生一个帝国

For as long as human beings have existed， surely no part of the nat-ural world has been more enigmatic or influential as the movement of observable celestial objects. Earth’s movement around the sun set the agricultural cycles by which the large majority of humanity lived until our own， very recently arrived， modern era， while the moon’s effect on the ocean’s tides profoundly influenced the day-to-day lives and economies of ancient seafaring nations. In the Greco-Roman world， there is ample evidence that celestial objects， their movements and occasional surprise appearances not only inspired awe and wonder， but in some cases directly influenced mythology， elections， wars and imperial propaganda. Eclipses， comets and meteorites were particularly mentioned by the ancient writers since their appearances were both startling and， for many， utterly unpredictable.

自人类诞生以来，想必自然界没有什么比可观测天体的运动更神秘莫测，或者影响更为深远。（剩余5588字）