[.ca] The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Part II (ISBN 962634122X)

From Amazon.com:
British parliamentarian and soldier Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) conceived of his plan for Decline and Fall while "musing amid the ruins of the Capitol" on a visit to Rome. For the next 10 years he worked away at his great history, which traces the decadence of the late empire from the time of the Antonines and the rise of Western Christianity. "The confusion of the times, and the scarcity of authentic memorials, pose equal difficulties to the historian, who attempts to preserve a clear and unbroken thread of narration," he writes. Despite these obstacles, Decline and Fall remains a model of historical exposition, and required reading for students of European history.

A magistrally written sequel:
Edward Gibbon is the most talented British historian of all times and "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" is his acclaimed masterwork, an opus which should be included in whatever list of the 100 most important literary works of all times. The first three books, elegantly featured on a velvet green cover and boxed together in picturally attractive white cardbox, cover the decline and fall of the so-called Western Empire, seated alternately in Rome or Verona in Italy in the end of the V century A.D., and I read it with respect and awe in no more than a month (see the pertinent review). The sequel, again presented with all the elegance the opus deserves, is composed of three voluminous books, totalling again some 2.000 pages and covering the period after the fall of Rome to the barbarians of the Visigoth Allaric and others, where the power and the Empire has moved its see to Constantinople (Byzantium) in the East. The Crusades and the likeness of the prophet Mohamed are there, although from the preconcept and biased view of a retrograde XVIII English colonizer who likened the Arabs to savages and women to a second class position in society. This second series of book is as good and lenghty as the first series, something which is in itself an almost unattainable goal to any sequel such as this, and Gibbon has once again the reader's attention suspended on a perpetual state of anxiety, always looking forward to read in the next sequence of words a point of view or a descriptive text magistrally written about human boldness and courage in the event of victory, or else the picture of the frailties of human soul when facing impending danger. His polemical portrait of Empress Theodora (according to him a former prostitute) is unequaled to anything written before or after him, specially the part where it was to her that the fleeing emperor Athanasius owe the maintenance of his wavering will and his imperial rule. The erudition of Edward Gibbon is unparalelled and he unassumedly cites many ancient writters in Greek, Latin, French and other languages, letting solely to the reader the not so easy task of translating it into English. His English is elegant and unexpected and the avail of a handy good English dictionary of archaic words will be a helpfull tool to the reader. His sources are profuse and diversified and whenever he has the opportunity, he traces the parallel of ancient history with contemporary and imperial England in the making. In my opinion, the misconcepts of some of his views notwithstanding, this is one of the most important works concerning the fall of Rome ever done and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Peerless history:
Edward Gibbon's masterpiece is not only the finest work of history in the English language, it is also one of its greatest narratives. No writer can fail to learn from how Gibbon used his incredible command of sources and texts to fashion his work; no student of the classic world can fail to learn from Gibbon's wealth of detail; no educated person can fail to learn from his depiction of the corruption and collapse of a once-mighty empire. Modern historians pooh-pooh Gibbon's "bias" and "slant" and insinuate that the mighty world of professional academic history "gets" the subject in a way Gibbon did not. Gibbon was a man, of course, and his word is not final. Yet the difference is that while historians today are blind to their own equally crippling prejudices, Gibbon wears his ones on his sleeve and nevertheless dares his detractors to doubt his erudition and achievement. They are pedants, but he is the Master. I find it interesting that while Gibbon had no formal training in history whatsoever, men and women today must spend close to a decade labouring over some insignificant point in the record to become a "real" historian. A telling point.

Essential, Important, but over-rated:
You've got to read Gibbon, IMO, to be educated about separation of Church and State, about the history of ideas, and, as many have noted, about Roman and Christian history itself. That said, I think Gibbon's gifts as a writer are over-rated. This man DOES NOT get to the point, or tend to express an over-arching theme that he can point to with facts in an explicit way. Rather, he takes a roundabout view of things, and ferreting out the main point or theme is difficult amidst all the ancillary material presented. Gibbon would be a flop as a journalist, or as a corporate communicator today. As a better example of history well-written, try the Pelican History of the World, by J. M. Roberts. However, with that exception, Gibbon's style and wit are worthy of emulation.

Toting books:
This is an extremely resourceful book. If someone needs a brief overview of the Roman times, this could be it. Although the volumes are a little thick, they are small enough to tote around wherever you go, if you want. Well, that's all I got to say.

The collapse of Rome and the western world explained.:
The quite voluminous "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" is one of the most important books of all times, and is of special interest to the reader who wants to go the extra mile in search of the reasons why the Empire collapsed after almost 1.000 years of existence. Is also a good reminder to everyone of us that, no matter what, all things pass and one world leader is followed by another in a sequence of falling cards. The book, first publishe in 1776, the same year that the "Wealth of the Nations" was published, and the same year the United States declared its independency, is one of the first serious attempts to relate history in a context of sequenced facts where social, political and cultural movements were much more important than the play of personalities. Edward Gibbon lived in Geneva many years and was familiar with the most important intelectual developments of the age, being acquainted with Voltaire and his ideas, reading and writting in many languages but mainly in French. The bibliography he consulted is extensive and, even some 15 centuries after the facts he reports, his is one of the most comprehensive and authoritative analysis of the reasons behind the fall of Rome. To begin with, he does not list how it all began, that is, it is not his purpose to narrate how the Empire was built. He begins with the Empire as a "fait accompli", with a narrative in the rule of Julius Cesar , the philosopher ruler, and analises with endless detail all the rationale of lack of in each and every ruler's mind, the background of his ascent and the reasons behind the fall of each one of them. The vast majority of Rome's ruler was killed by people who was akin or intimate to the ruler or by members of the Praetorian guard. Also, all the meanings of the empire's hierarchy is explained with a lot of detail, what was the function of a Caesar, what meant to be a senator at the time of Rome apogee, of consulship, etc... Each one of the 3 books, totalling some 2.000 pages, has a very interesting map of Europe, Africa and Asia at the time. A lot of factual information is there to astound the reader with the polyhistoric knowledge of the author. His privileged mind does not permit him to understand that not all the readers speak the languages he does and the text is full of footnotes quotations in Latin and ancient Greek, with no translation whatsoever. The portrait of the barbarians kings and people is superb and the reader has the opportunity of a face to face contact with Allaric, the king of the Goths, and with Atilla, the king of the Huns. Sure, this trilogy is only focused in the so-called West Empire and its sequel is totally devoted to the East empire, but that is another story.