Nonfiction And Reference Codexery

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

A six-volume Enlightenment history of Rome's decline.

Last updated

Gibbon argued the Roman Empire fell largely due to a loss of civic virtue, and he sparked controversy over the role of Christianity in that decline.[1] Edward Gibbon, an English historian, authored a six-volume set titled The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, which addresses events from 98 to 1590.[2]

Making and release

He held the Middle Ages in contempt as a superstitious Dark Age, believing human progress could resume only in his own "Age of Reason"[3] William Strahan and Thomas Cadell first published Volume I in February 1776.[4] The second and third volumes came out in 1781, while volumes four through six were released as a set in 1788.[5] The initial edition of all six volumes was printed in quarto format, with octavo editions starting in 1783.[5]

Gibbon originally intended to chronicle only Rome's decline, but later broadened his project to encompass the entire Roman Empire.[6] He dedicated most of his life to this project, likening the release of each volume to the birth of a child.[7] Among his influences were Montesquieu's Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline and Voltaire's Essay on Universal History.[8] Gibbon employed a writing style that was objective, unemotional, and analytical, though he sometimes fell into moralizing and using aphorisms.[9]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pocock, "Between Machiavelli and Hume: Gibbon as Civic Humanist and Philosophical Historian", Daedalus, 1976, p. 153–169; Pocock, 2003, p. 85–88, 144, 223 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Craddock, "Historical Discovery and Literary Invention in Gibbon's "Decline and Fall"", Modern Philology, May 1988, p. 569–587; Pocock, "Gibbon's Decline and Fall and the World View of the Late Enlightenment", Eighteenth-Century Studies, 1977, p. 287–303; Pocock, "The Cambridge Companion to Edward Gibbon", Cambridge University Press, 2018, p. 20–40 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  3. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pocock, 2003, p. 85–88, 144, 223 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  4. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Norton, "A Bibliography of the Works of Edward Gibbon", Burt Franklin, 1940, p. 44–73; Norton, 1970 (1940), p. 44–45 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Norton, 1970 (1940), p. 44–45 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Gibbon, "The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon", Alex Murray & Son, 1796, p. 79 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  7. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Craddock, "Edward Gibbon, Luminous Historian: 1772–1794", Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989, p. 249–266 (we also read that source) en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Pocock, "The enlightenments of Edward Gibbon: 1737—1764", Cambridge University Press, 2003, p. 65, 145; Pocock, 2003, p. 85–88, 144, 223 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Foster, "Melancholy Duty", Springer, 2013, p. 63 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

More in Nonfiction And Reference

The Imitation of ChristThe Incoherence of the IncoherenceThe Incoherence of the PhilosophersThe Interpretation of DreamsLexiconLives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and ArchitectsMuqaddimahMémoires d'Outre-TombeNatural History (Pliny)Narrative of the Life of Frederick DouglassNight (memoir)On Liberty

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →