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| Title | : | The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |
| Author | : | Edward Gibbon |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | abridged |
| Pages | : | Pages: 1312 pages |
| Published | : | August 12th 2003 by Modern Library (first published 1776) |
| Categories | : | History. Nonfiction. Classics. Ancient History. Historical |
Description Concering Books The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Length: 126 hrs and 31 minsThe History of the Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire was written by English historian Edward Gibbon & originally published in six quarto volumes. Volume 1 was published in 1776, going thru six printings; 2-3 in 1781; 4-6 in 1788-89. It was a major literary achievement of the 18th century, adopted as a model for the methodologies of historians.
The books cover the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius, from 180 to 1590. They take as their material the behavior & decisions that led to the eventual fall of the Empire in East & West, offering explanations.
Gibbon is called the 1st modern historian of ancient Rome. By virtue of its mostly objective approach & accurate use of reference material, his work was adopted as a model for the methodologies of 19-20th century historians. His pessimism & detached irony was common to the historical genre of his era.
Although he published other books, Gibbon devoted much of his life (1772-89) to this one work. His Memoirs of My Life & Writings is devoted largely to his reflections on how the book virtually became his life. He compared the publication of each succeeding volume to a newborn.
Gibbon offers an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell, a task difficult because of few comprehensive written sources, tho he wasn't the only historian to tackle the subject. Most of his ideas are taken from what few relevant records were available: those of Roman moralists of the 4-5th centuries.
According to Gibbon, the Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions because of lost of civic virtue. They'd become weak, outsourcing defence to barbarian mercenaries, who became so numerous & ingrained that they took over. Romans had become effeminate, incapable of tough military lifestyles. In addition, Christianity created belief that a better life existed after death, fostering indifference to the present, sapping patriotism. Its comparative pacifism tended to hamper martial spirit. Lastly, like other Enlightenment thinkers, he held in contempt the Middle Ages as a priest-ridden, superstitious, dark age. It wasn't until his age of reason that history could progress.
Present Books In Pursuance Of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
| Original Title: | The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire |
| ISBN: | 0375758119 (ISBN13: 9780375758119) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Setting: | Roman Empire |
Rating Out Of Books The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Ratings: 3.96 From 10859 Users | 480 ReviewsJudge Out Of Books The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
from Iggy Pop's essay on this book:Here are just some of the ways I benefit: 1. I feel a great comfort and relief knowing that there were others who lived and died and thought and fought so long ago; I feel less tyrannized by the present day. 2. I learn much about the way our society really works, because the system-origins - military, religious, political, colonial, agricultural, financial - are all there to be scrutinized in their infancy. I have gained perspective. 3. The language in whichGibbon's great, repeated subject: magnificent, superior ideas reduced by human motives to narrow self-aggrandising brutality. Not all historians are ironists, and few can summarize (albeit in compound paragraphs) complex Christian beliefs in stark contrast to un-Chrstian behavior (need a Gibbon for current US politics--don't see one): but as the angels who protected the catholic cause were only visible to the eyes of faith, Theodosius prudently reinforced those heavenly legions with the more
were gibbon a marxist, he might say that the western empire fell because roman citizens slowly transformed through the dialectics of economic and military conquest from virtuous members of a cosmopolis into self-oriented and animalistic lumpenized antisocial nihilists, which would be difficult to dispute conceptually. whether this civic decay is the cause or rather the effect of mass irreversible saturnism remains nevertheless as yet unaddressed by the learned writer.
Although the Empire teeters almost from the beginning, it takes a long time to fall. It turns out the fall, if not the decline, was all the fault of Christianity. And evil, thoroughly debauched emperors, like Gordion, Commodus, and Palpatine. With Gibbon's assistance, they fall in the best prose possible. I was going to insert a few of my favorite passages here, but there were about 6 volumes of them, so I desisted.
Reading parts of this again for work, and realised I never reviewed this absolutely massive book.One of the most fascinating (and distorted) works of history ever written, created by one of the most famous (and biased and opinionated) historians of all time.Full review to come.
I borrowed the first two volumesamongst my Dad's all-time favouritesfrom his study when I was around fourteen; and my enduring fascination with the Roman Empire, and ancient history in general, most likely stems from a combination of the heady brews of Gibbon's and Tolkien's masterworks, which ignited within me a terrific thirst for mythology, legend, and history that has yet to be slaked. As far as The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is concerned, I believe that Gibbon is the greatest
I'll never find here my edition, which is a cute set of seven little hardbacks, 6 inches high, from 1904. I thought it would be charming to read this work in such old-fashioned books. I have to report that my bookmark is at p.476 of volume four. That's well more than halfway. But that was the consistent read; I've dipped in, and the portions nearest to my heart -- say, on Attila and on Zingis as he calls him, and on other assorted barbarians -- Theodoric was a great story greatly told -- these I
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