they felt were by nature free

自己生来是自由的
and they couldn't be free so long as there was tyranny.

而只要是有僭主他们便不可能拥有自由
But tyranny was in fact a natural way of life for barbarians,

僭主制实际上是野蛮人的生存方式
who were not by nature free men.So it's helpful.

而非生性自由的人这点很有用
And this is a form of ethnocentric stuff,

这是某种种族中心主义的问题
but the Greeks spelled it out very carefully, thought about it very carefully,

但是希腊人慎而叙之慎而思之
and if you had said, well why do you say that?

如果你问我为什么这么说
Well, they would; deep down they might hold what

那是因为他们可能在内心深处持有
we would call a sort of racial prejudice,

某种我们称之为种族成见的观念
but I think they would have made a better case for it.

但我认为他们的应对可能稍好
They would have said, to be a free man as Aristotle said,

就像亚里士多德所说要成为自由人
you need to live in a polis,

就得在城邦中生活