The Lives And Works Of The Great Historians – Edward Gibbon

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All historians write in the context of their own time, as can be seen clearly in looking at Tacitus, writing about Rome within a generation of the events he described. What of Edward Gibbon though, who wrote about Rome in his lengthy Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire with the benefit of 18th century hindsight? He was influenced by the Age Of Enlightenment thinking behind the French Revolution, and his Decline echoes the fall of French aristocracy. Rome was doing well up to 182 CE but hit decline in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, though Gibbon has it endure as the Catholic Holy Roman Empire up the 15th Century Reformation. Rome’s decline is attributed down to internal feuds, state corruption, barbarian attacks and the rise of Christianity. Rome's empire was so stretched that control of the extreme frontiers was often given to barbarian (non-Roman) mercenaries who eventually began to serve their own interests as their numbers grew. Meanwhile, with soldiers themselves among the growing conversion movement to Christianity, the tendency to Pacifism and turning the other cheek sapped the Roman military aggression. The Praetorian guard were constantly demanding higher pay and getting implicated in rebellions and even assassinations against the ruling emperors. Gibbon was quite secular and even atheistic in outlook, seeing religion as superstition, and the advances of Christianity and Islam parallel Roman decline in literature, art and culture. He seems quite resentful about that. He seems to see Rome as set in a Golden Age. In many ways his work is also a warning to all later empires that they too will ultimately fall. Arthur Chappell