The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Penguin Classics)

I am a retired professor of Classics. I read Gibbon’s Decline and Fall many years ago. I recently re-read it in David Womersley’s Penguin abridged and unabridged editions.I was once again awe-struck by the beauty, accuracy, and depth of Gibbon’s prose, by his range of erudition, and the skill with which he used both style and knowledge to analyze, elucidate, and amuse. I was also impressed by his scrupulousness in informing his readers about the reliability and unreliability of the sources available. However, I should warn readers that even Gibbon’s often-expressed (Chapter 6, footnotes 74, 80; Chapter 7, footnotes 31, 55) skepticism of the value of the Historia Augusta did not go far enough.To read Gibbon’s history is to partake of the worldly wisdom which his history shared with the literary criticism of Dr. Johnson, the political philosophy of Edmund Burke, the economic analysis of Adam Smith, and the epistemology and sociology of David Hume. (Gibbon, Johnson, Burke, and Smith were members of The Club, which met every Friday evening at 7:00 in a private room at the Turk’s Head Tavern to eat, drink, talk and argue. Hume, Smith, and Gibbon were close friends.)Examples(Below, the first number is the page in the abridgment; the second number, in Roman numerals, is the volume of the unabridged; it is followed by the page in that volume.)13; I,35: “Trajan [the emperor who extended the Roman Empire to its largest extent] was ambitious of fame, and as long as mankind shall bestow a more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst for military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.”296; I.929 “The palaces of Sapor [the Persian king] were reduced to ashes … if we are more deeply affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.”II.207 (not in the abridgement): “There exists in human nature a strong propensity to depreciate the advantages magnify the evils of the present times.”601; III.164: “But the spirit of rapine and revenge [of pre-Islam Arabia] was attempered [i.e., tempered] by the milder influence of trade and literature [i.e., literacy] … the merchant is the friend of mankind; and the annual caravans brought the first seeds of knowledge and politeness [i.e., civilized conduct].”I.235-7 (not in abridgement): Gibbon pointed out that literacy is essential for “the useful and agreeable arts of life.” However,“Of these arts ancient Germans were wretchedly destitute. They passed their lives in a state of ignorance and poverty, which it has pleased some declaimers to dignify with the appellation of virtuous simplicity.”The Germans also lacked money, about which Gibbon observed,“The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express ideas; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent.”I.1070 (not in abridgement) (on the massacre of the unarmed sons of the Goths in 376, which Gibbon granted was probably necessary for the safety of the Empire)“The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorise the violation of every positive [i.e., legally enacted] law. How far … that may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant.”On forms of government (90-91; I.187-8)“Of the forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule. Is it possible to relate, without an indignant smile, that on the father’s demise, the property of a nation, like that of a drove of oxen, descends to his infant son … and that the bravest warriors and the wisest statesmen relinquishing their natural right to empire, approach the royal cradle with bended knees and protestations of inviolable fidelity? … But our more serious thoughts will respect a useful prejudice that establishes a rule of succession independent of the passions of mankind."In the cool shade of retirement, we may easily devise imaginary forms of government in which sceptre shall be constantly bestowed on the most worthy. … Experience overturns these airy fabrics and teaches us that in a large society the election of a monarch can never devolve on the wisest …"The superior prerogative of birth, when it has obtained the sanction of time and popular opinion, is the plainest and least invidious of all distinctions among mankind. … To the firm establishment of this idea we owe the peaceful succession and mild administration of European monarchies.”Less than twenty years after Gibbon wrote this, the French Revolution confirmed the wisdom of his argument; as did, even more forcefully, the political history of twentieth-century Europe.Gibbon shared with Hume, Burke, and Friedrich Hayek (The Fatal Conceit) a distrust of “airy fabrics” reached “in the cool shade of retirement” and a recognition of the importance of “useful prejudice[s],” such as the “prejudice of [ancient Roman] religion,” which reinforced Roman patriotism (434; II.508). In fact, what Woodrow Wilson wrote about Burke in the conclusion of his “Edmund Burke: The Man and His Times,” applies equally to Gibbon:“The materials of his thought never appear in the same form in which he obtained them. They have been smelted and re-coined… transmuting what he writes into literature … Every sentence, too, is steeped in the colors of an extraordinary imagination. The movement takes your breath and quickens your imagination.”XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXWarningsGibbon sometimes threw out striking, memorable statements that his own history shows are inaccurate.The most often quoted is in the last chapter (747; III.1068): “In the preceding volumes of the History, I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion.” However, elsewhere, Gibbon wrote, “The decline of Rome was the inevitable effect of immoderate greatness” (435; II.509); “This long peace (96-180 AD) … introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire” (62; I.83): “Posterity … justly considered him [Septimius Severus, emperor 193-211] as the principal author of the decline of the Roman empire” (89; I.148]. Gibbon repeatedly attributed the decline and fall to the disappearance of patriotism and military valor, beginning in the “long peace” of the second century. He ignored impoverishment and depopulation, as well as his own description of the vigor of the army as late as the reign of Julian (361-3 AD). In fact, Gibbon’s attempts at finding causes for the decline are the weakest aspect of his history. I advise readers to ignore them.Another constantly repeated quotation from the Decline and Fall is (82; I.102) “History … is … little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.” With this statement, Gibbon did his own history a terrible injustice. He used his encyclopedic knowledge of written sources, inscriptions, coins, and topography to give his readers a panoramic view of political, social, and economic change, of prosperity and poverty, of brutality and humanity. He used the Theodosian [Law] Code (I.603; not in abridgement), for its “copious and authentic information on … laws and manners [i.e., way of life].” Copious also was Gibbon’s description of the rise of Christianity and Islam, and Julian the Apostate’s desperate attempt to reform and save paganism.In addition, I know of no history except Herodotus’, with as many memorable anecdotes. Certainly, no history rivals Gibbon’s wealth of fascinating men (and some women): and even places, like the sensual beauty of the temple of Apollo and grove of Daphne near Antioch (263-4; I.896-8).Gibbon introduced his narrative of the Byzantine Empire after 641 (III. 382; not in abridgement) with, “I shall investigate … the provinces and wealth, the civil government and military force, the character and literature.” However, equally instructive for his concept of history is his explanation (583; III.23-5) of why his narrative of Byzantine history is brief. If it were more detailed,“The patient reader [would not] find an adequate reward of instruction or amusement. … on the throne, in the [army] camp, in the schools, we search, perhaps with fruitless diligence, the names and characters that may deserve to be rescued from oblivion.”XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXThe AbridgementI recommend reading Womersley’s abridgement first. He included in it the most important and/or interesting chapters. As my quotations show, the chapters he omitted contain many gems of insight. However, while reading the full history, I found myself skimming most of the chapters that were not in the abridgement. (An exception is Chapter 37. Womersley included only a few excepts in the abridgment (pages 430-33), even though he introduces those excerpts by pointing out the importance of the whole chapter.)XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXAddendum: Human NatureOn page 876, of Volume III (not in the abridgement), Gibbon quotes a report of a Byzantine visitor to England at the beginning of the fifteenth century:“The most singular circumstance of their manners is their disregard of conjugal honour … In their mutual visits, as the first act of hospitality, the guest is welcomed in the embraces of their wives and daughters; among friends they [wives and daughters] are lent and borrowed without shame.”Gibbon commented about the author of this description,“His credulity … may teach an important lesson: to distrust the accounts of foreign and remote nations, and to suspend our belief in every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.”For decades, Margaret Mead’s now discredited Coming of Age in Samoa was required in first-year Anthropology classes. In it, Mead described Samoa as a free-love paradise without jealousy, sexual inhibitions, or violence.During the “Cultural Revolution” (1966-76) in Communist China, the major American TV networks, news magazines and newspapers reported first-hand accounts of how everyone in China worked together joyfully for the common good, without jealousy, envy, spite, selfishness, or dominance.David Hume observed in his An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding (II.86),“Should a traveller, returning from a far country, bring us an account of men wholly different from any with whom we were ever acquainted; men who are entirely divested of avarice, ambition, or revenge,; who know no pleasure but friendship, generosity and public spirit; we should immediately … detect the falsehood, and prove him a liar, with the same certainty as if he had stuffed his narration with stories of centaurs and dragons.”Gibbon had a somber view of some of the tendencies innate in what he called “the character of man.” He wrote about the horrors that the Turks inflicted on the inhabitants of Constantinople after its capture (III.966; not in abridgement),“In the fall and sack of great cities, an historian is condemned to repeat the tale of uniform calamity; the same effects must produce the same passions; and when those passions may be indulged without control, small alas! is the difference between civilized and savage man.”

I purchased this book for a class I am taking that has finally required me to read something that has long been on my too long list of books that must be read. Gibbon's treatment of the fall of the Roman Empire is legendary, and there is little need for me to sing his praises. But I am going to do so regardless.I will say this, as a student of classical and medieval history and an avid reader of all things historical I have read countless books on the events of the past and none have ever been this thoroughly entertaining. His analysis is insightful, his sources plentiful and diverse and his prose is witty and entertaining. He does not shy away from the difficult and controversial subjects (ie the rise of Christianity and the problems it posed for the Roman Empire), something which I find extremely refreshing.This abridgment is a very good introduction. It hit's on the main points and gives brief overviews of the chapters occluded in order to maintain the information and tone of a six volume work within one easily manageable book. The one complaint I have thus far is the decision to leave out the chapters on Constantine, who was such a pivotal figure in the decline of the Roman Empire.This book also has additional relevance. When reading history it is almost impossible to avoid drawing parallels between days long gone and the things occurring all around you, and never has the parallel between two times been more vivid for me than when reading Gibbon. I firmly believe that every politician and policy maker, every general and statesmen should read this work.This version has successfully done at least one thing, it has convinced me beyond a shade of a doubt that I will be reading the entirety of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire as soon as I can find the time.I will leave you all with this:After more than 200 years Gibbon's work stands firm as a concrete analysis of the causal factors leading to the downfall of the Roman Empire, it is hard to think of another work that has that kind of staying power.To any other students of history, whether you be a student in practice or in hobby, READ GIBBON!