The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I

by Edward Gibbon

Publishers:

Encyclopedia Britannica; Robert P. Gwinn

, 1990

Overview

The makers of Encyclopaedia Britannica bring you one of the Great Books of the Western World. This text captures major ideas, stories, and discoveries that helped shape Western culture.

Contents

Top Highlights

“But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the extent of conquest; and as soon as time or accident had removed the artificial supports, the stupendous fabric yielded to the pressure of its own weight. The story of its ruin is simple and obvious; and instead of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.” (Page 631)

“A long period of calamity or decay must have checked the industry and diminished the wealth of the people; and their profuse luxury must have been the result of that indolent despair which enjoys the present hour and declines the thoughts of futurity.” (Page 456)

“Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue fortify the strength and courage of barbarians” (Page 633)

“The empire of Rome was firmly established by the singular and perfect coalition of its members” (Page 632)

“They persisted in the design of maintaining the dignity of the empire, without attempting to enlarge its limits. By every honourable expedient they invited the friendship of the barbarians; and endeavoured to convince mankind that the Roman power, raised above the temptation of conquest, was actuated only by the love of order and justice.” (Page 4)

Product Details

• Title: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume I
• Author: Edward Gibbon
• Edition: Second Edition
• Series: Great Books of the Western World
• Volume: 37
• Publishers: Encyclopedia Britannica, Robert P. Gwinn
• Print Publication Date: 1990
• Logos Release Date: 2016
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Rome › History--Empire, 30 B.C.-476 A.D; Byzantine Empire › History
• ISBNs: 0852295316, 9780852295311
• Resource ID: LLS:GBWW37
• Resource Type: Monograph
• Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T00:11:32Z

About Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon was born at Putney, Surrey. While a student at Westminster, he read history voraciously, but in 1749 left because of poor health. After a series of indifferent tutors, he entered Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1752. He was soon expelled for espousing Roman Catholicism. (He later became cynical of Christian beliefs.) Sent to study under a Calvinist minister in Lausanne (Switzerland), he received excellent instruction, reading Latin classics, philosophers Locke and Grotius, and French writers Montesquieu and Pascal.

In 1764 he visited Rome, where the ancient ruins inspired him to write a history of antiquity. The seven–volume Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (published, 1776–1788), based on intensive research of original sources, is a monumental study of the late Roman Empire and early church history. Gibbon concluded that the rapid spread of Christianity was primarily due to the strict morality, discipline, and courageous martyrdom of the early church members. Gibbon, however, ridiculed the Christians’ belief in the supernatural and derided medieval Christianity as anti–intellectual.