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''The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', a major literary achievement of the 18th Century published in six volumes, was written by the celebrated English Historian Edward Gibbon . Volume I was published in 1776 , and went through six printings (a remarkable feat for its time). Volumes II and III were published in 1781 ; volumes IV, V, VI in 1788 - 89 . The original volumes were published as Quarto s, a common publishing practice of the time. INTRODUCTION The books cover the period of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius , from just before 180 to 1453 and beyond, concluding in 1590 . They take as their material the behaviour and decisions that led to the decay and eventual Fall Of The Roman Empire in the East and West , offering an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell. Gibbon is sometimes called the first "modern historian of ancient Rome."David Potter, ''A Companion To The Roman Empire''. (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell Pub., 2006), p. 100 . By virtue of its mostly Objective approach and highly accurate use of Reference Material , Gibbon's work was adopted as a model for the methodologies of 19th and 20th Century historians. His Pessimism and detached use of Irony was common to the historical genre of his era. Although he published other books, Gibbon devoted much of his life (1772-1789) to this one work. His Autobiography ''Memoirs Of My Life And 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 child.Patricia B. Craddock, ''Edward Gibbon, Luminous Historian''. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1989), 249-266. GIBBON'S THEORY The book is famous not only because it is extraordinarily well written, but also because Gibbon offers an explanation for Why The Roman Empire Fell . This is one of the great historical questions, and, because of the relative lack of written records from the time, one of the most difficult to undertake. Gibbon was not the first to theorise about this. In fact most of his ideas are directly taken from Roman moralists of the 4th and 5th Centuries who wrote about it at the time; nor would he be the last; see for example Henri Pirenne 's Thesis of the early 20th Century . According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions because of a loss of civic virtue among its citizens.J.G.A. Pocock, "Between Machiavelli and Hume: Gibbon as Civic Humanist and Philosophical Historian," ''Daedulus'' 105,3(1976), 153-169; and in ''' their duties to defend their Empire to barbarian mercenaries, who then became so numerous and ingrained that they were able to take over the Empire. Romans, he believed, had become Effeminate , unwilling to live a tougher, "manly" military lifestyle. In addition Gibbon pointed to Christianity. Christianity, he says, created a belief that a better life existed after death. This fostered indifference to the present among Roman citizens, thus sapping their desire to sacrifice for the Empire. He also believed its comparative Pacifism tended to sap the traditional Roman martial spirit. Finally, like other Enlightenment thinkers, Gibbon held in contempt the Middle Ages as a priest-ridden, superstitious, Dark Age . It was not until his own age of reason and rational thought, it was believed, that human history could resume its progress. GIBBON'S USE OF CITATIONS Gibbon provides the reader with a glimpse of his thought process with extensive notes along the body of the text, a precursor to the modern use of footnotes. Gibbon's footnotes are famous for their . They provide an entertaining moral commentary on both ancient Rome and 18th-century Great Britain . This technique enabled Gibbon to compare ancient Rome to modern times. Gibbon's work advocates a Rationalist and progressive view of history. Gibbon's citations provide in-depth detail regarding his use of sources for his work on ancient Rome, documents dating back to ancient Rome. The detail within his asides and his care in noting the importance of each document is a precursor to modern-day historical footnoting methodology. The work is notable for its erratic but exhaustively documented notes and research. John Bury, following him 113 years later with his own "''History of the Later Roman Empire''," utilized much of the same research, and commented admiringly of the incredible depth and accuracy of Gibbon's work. It is notable that Bury, over a century after Gibbon, and Heather, over a century after Bury, both based much of their own work on Gibbon's factual research. Both found little to argue with his facts, though both disagreed with his theories, primarily on Christianity as a prime factor in the Empire's decline and fall. Unusual for the 18th century, Gibbon was notably not content with secondhand accounts when the primary sources were accessible, and used them so well that even today historians still cite his work as the definitive factual history of the western empire. "I have always endeavoured," Gibbon wrote, "to draw from the fountain-head; that my curiosity, as well as a sense of duty, has always urged me to study the originals; and that, if they have sometimes eluded my search, I have carefully marked the secondary evidence, on whose faith a passage or a fact were reduced to depend." Preface to Gibbon's ''Volume the Fourth'' in David Womersley ed., ''Edward Gibbon - The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'', vol. 2 (New York: Penguin Books, 1994), p. 520. The ''Decline and Fall'' is a literary monument and a massive step forward in historical method.In the early 20th century, biographer Sir Leslie Stephen Edward (1737-1794)," ''Dictionary of National Biography'', vol. 7, (Oxford, 1921), 1134 summarized ''The History''
CONTROVERSY: CHAPTERS XV, XVI When Volume I was first published, it was introduced in quartos. The first two were well received and widely praised. The last quarto in Volume I, especially Chapters XV and XVI, were highly controversial, and Gibbon was attacked as a " Paganist ". Gibbon attacked Christian Martyrdom as a myth by deconstructing official Church history that had been perpetuated for centuries. Because the Roman Catholic Church had a virtual monopoly on its own history, its own Latin interpretations were considered sacrosanct, and as a result the Church's writings had rarely been questioned before. For Gibbon, however, the Church writings were Secondary Source s, and he shunned them in favour of Primary Source s contemporary to the period he was chronicling. This is why Gibbon is referred to as the "first modern historian". According to Gibbon, Romans were far more tolerant of Christians than Christians were of one another, especially once Christianity gained the upper hand. Christians inflicted far greater casualties on other Christians than were ever inflicted by the Roman Empire. Gibbon extrapolated that the number of Christians executed by other Christian factions far exceeded all the Christian martyrs who died during the three centuries of Christianity under Roman rule. This was in stark contrast to orthodox Church history, which insisted that Christianity won the hearts and minds of people largely because of the inspirational example set by its martyrs. Gibbon demonstrated that the early Church's custom of bestowing the title of martyr on all confessors of faith grossly inflated the actual numbers. Gibbon compares how insubstantial that number was, by comparing it to more modern terms. He compared both the reigns of Diocletian (284-305), and Charles V (1519-1556) and the electorate of the Holy Roman Empire , making the argument that both were remarkably similar. Both emperors were plagued by continuous war and compelled to excessive taxation; both chose to abdicate as Emperors at roughly the same age; and both chose to lead a quiet life upon their retirement. Gibbon's critics were scathing in their attack on this particular line of argument. Numerous tracts were published criticizing his work, and Gibbon was forced to defend his work in reply. He left London to finish the following volumes in Lausanne , where he could work in solitude. CRITICISM Gibbon's remarks on Christianity have aroused vigorous attack.A Vindication of Some Passages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth chapters of the History Of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Gibbon E. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/gibbon/decline/files/vndctn/chelsum.htm However, by the nineteenth century, "church historians allow the substantial justness of (Gibbon's) main positions" The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, Vol. IV: Draeseke - Goa. Schaff, Philip (1819-1893) Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1952 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc04/Page_484.html Martyrs "The learned Origen, who, from his experience as well as readings, was intimately acquainted with the history of the Christians, declares, in the most express terms, that the number of martyrs was very inconsiderable. His authority would alone be sufficient to annihilate that formidable army of martyrs, whose relics, drawn for the most part from the catacombs of Rome, have replenished so many churches, and whose marvellous achievements have been the subject of so many volumes of holy romance... We shall conclude this chapter by a melancholy truth which obtrudes itself on the reluctant mind; that, even admitting, without hesitation or inquiry, all that history has recorded, or devotion has feigned, on the subject of martyrdoms, it must still be acknowledged that the Christians, in the course of their intestine dissensions, have inflicted far greater severities on each other than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels." (chapter 16). Christianity "As the happiness of a future life is the great object of religion, we may hear without surprise or scandal that the introduction, or at least the abuse of Christianity, had some influence on the decline and fall of the Roman empire. The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active virtues of society were discouraged; and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the cloister: a large portion of public and private wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion; and the soldiers' pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both sexes who could only plead the merits of abstinence and chastity. Faith, zeal, curiosity, and more earthly passions of malice and ambition, kindled the flame of theological discord; the church, and even the state, were distracted by religious factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody and always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted from camps to synods; the Roman world was oppressed by a new species of tyranny; and the persecuted sects became the secret enemies of their country. Yet party-spirit, however pernicious or absurd, is a principle of union as well as of dissension. The bishops, from eighteen hundred pulpits, inculcated the duty of passive obedience to a lawful and orthodox sovereign; their frequent assemblies and perpetual correspondence maintained the communion of distant churches; and the benevolent temper of the Gospel was strengthened, though confirmed, by the spiritual alliance of the Catholics. The sacred indolence of the monks was devoutly embraced by a servile and effeminate age; but if superstition had not afforded a decent retreat, the same vices would have tempted the unworthy Romans to desert, from baser motives, the standard of the republic. Religious precepts are easily obeyed which indulge and sanctify the natural inclinations of their votaries; but the pure and genuine influence of Christianity may be traced in its beneficial, though imperfect, effects on the barbarian proselytes of the North. If the decline of the Roman empire was hastened by the conversion of Constantine, his victorious religion broke the violence of the fall, and mollified the ferocious temper of the conquerors." (chapter 39). Historians such as David S. Potter and Fergus Millar dispute claims that the Empire fell as a result of a kind of lethargy towards current affairs brought on by Constantine's adoption of Christianity as the official state religion. They claim that such a view is "vague" and has little real evidence to support it. Others such as J.B. Bury, who wrote a history of the later Empire, claimed there is "no" evidence to support Gibbon's claims of Christian apathy towards the Empire: "It has often been alleged that Christianity in its political effects was a disintegrating force and tended to weaken the power of Rome to resist her enemies. It is difficult to see that it had any such tendency, so long as the Church itself was united. Theological heresies were indeed to prove a disintegrating force in the East in the seventh century, when differences in doctrine which had alienated the Christians in Egypt and Syria from the government of Constantinople facilitated the conquests of the Saracens. But after the defeat of Arianism, there was no such vital or deep-reaching division in the West, and the effect of Christianity was to unite, not to sever, to check, rather than to emphasise, national or sectional feeling. In the political calculations of Constantine it was probably this ideal of unity, as a counterpoise to the centrifugal tendencies which had been clearly revealed in the third century, that was the great recommendation of the religion which he raised to power. Nor is there the least reason to suppose that Christian teaching had the practical effect of making men less loyal to the Empire or less ready to defend it. The Christians were as pugnacious as the pagans. Some might read Augustine's ''City of God'' with edification, but probably very few interpreted its theory with such strict practical logic as to be indifferent to the safety of the Empire. Hardly the author himself, though this has been disputed."J.B. Bury, ''History of the Later Roman Empire, from Arcadius to Irene (395 A. D. to 800 A. D.)''. (London and New York: Macmillan and Co., 1889), pp. 319-320. Today, historians tend to analyze economic and military factors in the decline of Rome, although generally allowing the spread of Christianity an underlying causative role.Ramsay MacMullen, ''Corruption and the Decline of Rome''. (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1988) Thomas S. Burns, ''Barbarians Within the Gates of Rome: Study of Roman Military Policy and the Barbarians, ca. 375-425 AD''. (Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1995). Neglect of Byzantium Others such as John Julius Norwich, despite their admiration for his admittedly brilliant work on furthering historical methodology, consider Gibbon's views on the Byzantine Empire flawed and blame him somewhat for the lack of interest shown in the subject throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries.John Julius Norwich, ''Byzantium'' (New York: Knopf, 1989); ''Byzantium: the apogee'' (London and New York: Viking Press, 1991). This view might well be admitted by Gibbon himself: "But it is not my intention to expatiate with the same minuteness on the whole series of the Byzantine history." http://www.ccel.org/ccel/gibbon/decline/files/preface.htm Preface, 1782 EDITIONS Note: Gibbon continued to revise and change his work even after publication. The complexities of the problem are addressed in Womersley's introduction and appendices to his complete edition.
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GIBBON'S LEGACY Gibbon’s methodology was so accurate that, to this day, little can be found to controvert his use of primary sources for evidence. While modern historical methodology has changed, his skill in translation of his sources was impeccable. Contemporary historians still rely on Gibbon as a secondary source to substantiate references. His literary tone is old-fashioned, skeptical, and pessimistic; it mirrors both the man and the topic: the gradual decay of a mighty empire. Variations on the series title (including using "Rise and Fall" in place of "Decline and Fall") have been used by other writers:
and the music albums:
and the films:
The title and author are also cited in Noel Coward 's comedic poem, "I went to a marvellous party."Link to notes on the poem here Link to poem here: [http://www.leoslyrics.com/listlyrics.php?hid=otpZLNNxnVw%3D . Excerpt: "If you have any mind at all, Gibbon's divine Decline and Fall, Seems pretty flimsy, No more than a whimsy... ." In addition, Isaac Asimov 's Foundation Series , an epic tale of the fall and rebuilding of a galactic empire, was inspired by Gibbon's book. As Asimov quipped, "I did some cribbin' from Gibbon". |
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