Book Review: The Decline and Fall of The Roman Empire

Introduction

I decided to pick up Decline and Fall as a result of my avid interest in the Roman Empire.  Edward Gibbon’s pièce de résistance is by and large considered the authoritative work on the subject as a whole. Touted by some as the finest example of historical literature ever made, I knew that I had to get my hands on it sooner or later. The paperback edition I acquired was slightly abridged.  It turns out that unabridged copies are quite expensive!

However this version  did not omit Gibbon’s important commentary on religion, which as it turns out is very important to understand the reception Gibbon's work received when it was published in the 18th century.

Since the Middle Ages, scholars across the planet have gazed in wonder at the ruins of the mighty Roman Empire, the cradle of Western civilization. At its apex, the Romans exercised their domain from the deserts of Anatolia to the bays of the Iberian Peninsula. Despite its absolute control over the western world, the Empire began an enigmatic period of rapid decay around the 4th century. Not fifty years hence, the magnificent city of Rome and its puppet emperor found itself in the clutches of the Gothic barbarians.

Edward Gibbon

Despite heavy scrutiny and research, it became an enormous challenge for historians to pinpoint any singular cause of Rome’s demise. After centuries of retrospect, it was at last apparent to authorities on the subject that the Roman Empire’s legendary deterioration could not be derived from a single historical event, but rather was the byproduct of multiple political and economic cataclysms that brought the lands of the Caesars to their ruin. To chronicle and bring to light these factors, Edward Gibbon began journeying to the former lands of the long-vanquished Empire, to piece together an accurate tale of its destruction. The resulting series of essays sprung forth from his research culminated the most comprehensive and controversial work of its time.

Having braved the reading of Gibbon’s masterpiece, I have come to a candid conclusion as to the quality of the text, as well as its relevance to our modern age.

Hope you enjoy this review.
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Prose and emotion

The first and most crucial point to note is Gibbon’s superlative prose.  Edward Gibbon delivers his writings with a classical eloquence that has long vanished. His Victorian wit, as well as his fiery tongue make Decline and Fall a piece of brilliance, rather than a pedantic bore. Gibbon delivers his best effort when he enters topics that invoke emotion (Pertinax’ assassination, Julian’s death, the sack of Constantinople).

Among the pioneers of the Enlightenment movement, Gibbon’s brash depiction of religion and the incompetent Late Roman Emperors exemplify the nature of the era he lived in. It was a time where the Papal authorities, as well as other religious figures experienced a decline in influence as the ideas of rationalism and scientific theory became widely accepted. Despite this, Edward Gibbon is known as the most outspoken critic of religion in his generation. His bitter distaste for theology is quite apparent in the latter half of Decline and Fall (more on that later).  Gibbon’s aggressive lambasting of The Papacy would shock the Western World for decades after Decline and Fall’s publication. It is in these moments of fiery passion that Gibbon’s words turn into poetry, hymns matching the longest-tenured of epics, and attention to detail unmatched by any work of history.

Here is an example of Gibbon’s depiction of the death of Julian, the last pagan emperor of Rome:

“After this discourse, which Julian pronounced in a firm and gentle tone of voice, he distributed, by a military testament, the remains of his private fortune; and making some inquiry why Anatolius was not present, he understood, from the answer of Sallust, that Anatolius was killed; and bewailed, with amiable inconsistency, the loss of his friend. At the same time he reproved the immoderate grief of the spectators; and conjured them not to disgrace, by unmanly tears, the fate of a prince who in a few moments would be united with heaven and with the stars. The spectators were silent; and Julian entered into a metaphysical argument with the philosophers Priscus and Maximus on the nature of the soul. The efforts which he made, of mind as well as body, most probably hastened his death. His wound began to bleed with fresh violence: his respiration was embarrassed by the swelling of the veins: he called for a draught of cold water, and, as soon as he had drunk it, expired without pain, about the hour of midnight. Such was the end of that extraordinary man, in the thirty-second year of his age, after a reign of one year and about eight months from the death of Constantius. In his last moments he displayed, perhaps with some ostentation, the love of virtue and of fame, which had been the ruling passions of his life.”

A tale of two halves. 

From the very first page, Edward Gibbon’s lifelong fascination with the Roman Empire is visible. In detailing the slow and tragic fall of the empire, Gibbon oozes enthusiasm and vigor. To him, tackling a tale of such grandeur made him the heir to the Greek playwrights of old, the author of the next great tragedy to be revered. In this endeavor, he is unarguably successful. Gibbon’s narration of the Empire’s colossal obliteration through corruption, military catastrophes, and of course, Christianity's rise, is a beauty to behold.

And yet, as the book wears on, Gibbon begins to lose the metier that makes Decline and Fall such a thrilling read.

Attila the Hun

For example, the conquests of Attila the Hun, the most fearsome threat Rome ever faced, is brushed over to an astonishing degree, implying that Gibbon believed that Attila’s reign of terror was merely a byproduct, not the last straw, in the Roman Empires demise. Granted, a full chapter is indeed dedicated to Attila, but Gibbon lacks the sense of urgency and importance that must be assigned when looking at such a significant series of events. This is a trend that unfortunately continues for the rest of the book.

Nonetheless, Gibbon makes a marvelous effort to convey the Fall of Rome in 476 CE, and the Golden Age of Western Civilization with it to close out the book’s first half.

Eastward Bound

The second half of Decline and Fall focuses primarily on the Eastern Roman Empire (later the Byzantine Empire), and the plethora of political intrigues and cultural divisions that began its downfall.

It must be noted that there is not one, but two different dates that are accepted as the end of the Roman Empire.   The first on September 4, 476 CE occurred when the Germanic warlord Odoacer overthrew the last Emperor based in Rome, Romulus Augustus. The other, and more controversial date is May 29, 1453, when the Ottoman Turks stormed the walls of Constantinople, effectively annihilating the Eastern Empire.

This oddity warrants further explanation. “Why are there two dates?” one might ask. “If Rome fell in 476 CE, doesn’t that mean the Empire fell with it?”

This is a heavily debated question, one which Gibbon has a distinct answer to. While the Western portion of the Empire collapsed with Romulus Augustus, the Eastern segment of the Empire was not only intact, but would become the dominant power in the civilized world for several more centuries. Based in Constantinople (modern day Istanbul), the Eastern Empire survived for nearly another millennium, and thus the subject of Decline and Fall's Second half.

Gibbon makes no effort to distinguish the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. Gibbon considers every Eastern Roman/Byzantine Emperor from Justinian to Constantine XI as the legitimate heir to the Roman state, and thus completely refers to the Eastern Empire and its inhabitants as “Roman”.

This lack of noting a difference, though admirable, becomes problematic down the stretch. Gibbon’s foremost missive, his antipathy to religion, comes in direct conflict with the very nature of the Eastern Empire. As the heartland of Christianity for its entire existence, the Byzantines operated under a theocracy, something that was nonexistent in the Western Empire. Serving as the spiritual head of Orthodox Christianity, the Eastern Emperor wielded an amount of influence roughly equivalent to that of the Pope, until the position was abolished.

Gibbon struggles mightily in maintaining his pro-Roman stance while taking on the theocratic society the 'Romans' now inhabited. A result of this inability to reconcile his beliefs creates an ultimately irrational apathy towards the Byzantines, which in turn contradicts the message he attempts to convey from the start of his work.

Siege of Constantinople

The lowest point of Gibbon’s writing comes at his profiling of Muhammad and the Arabic caliphates, which encompasses a large portion of the second half of Decline and Fall.  Gibbon details the rise of Islam with a surprising weariness. His profile of the Saracens and their achievements is pedantic, and does not have the verve he displayed in the first half of the book. Gibbon does seem to admire the intellectual Golden Age that the Islamic world fostered, yet he also displays a dislike of the Byzantine Empire that is puzzling.

However, Gibbon does a tremendous job in recounting the Arabic siege of Constantinople (717-18 CE). He describes the heroic defense of the city, as well as their ingenious use of Greek Fire (the medieval form of Napalm).

This burst of energy in describing the siege of Constantinople then becomes representative of Gibbon’s increasingly erratic writing style that marks the second half of the book.

The Fall

A final point of note regarding Gibbon’s work is how he portrays the epic fall of Constantinople into Muslim hands, an event that all but ended the Middle Ages. Gibbon writes with equal parts defeatism as he does foreboding. There is no depiction of honor or fight for the Byzantines in 1453. Stating cold facts, Gibbon goes into painstaking detail, the slow crumbling of the city, as well as the final stand of the brilliant, albeit doomed Emperor Constantine XI.

As he finishes the epic destruction of the city, Gibbon goes onto his closing remarks, regarding the ruin of former Roman territories, the advances of Charlemagne, and parting shots against The Papacy. However these appear to be afterthoughts of a weary writer.

As the final pages turn in Gibbon’s crowning achievement, I leave parting thoughts of my own.

Verdict

Rahul Kolluri

Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the grandest, and most encompassing work of history I likely will ever read. The meticulous efforts of Gibbon, alongside his unparalleled use of prose makes his book the definitive reference for any scholar of Rome.  Yet Gibbon is indeed a man, one whose flaws and bias are clearly apparent at points in the book. It is these nuances that tend to tear at the identity of this book.

Is it a throughly constructed historical recount, or is it a political treatise dedicated to undermining Christianity in an era where its overbearing nature became more apparent than ever? Or perhaps it is both, or none of these things.

While Gibbon died centuries ago, the legacy of his epic is debated to this day. Decline and Fall is a classic no matter how one looks at it. Reading his scrupulous depiction of the Roman Empire is undoubtedly the rite of passage for any aspiring historian. I thoroughly recommend it for anyone curious about the downfall of this amazing Empire with the longest run over time, broad geographic reach and that which perhaps represented the pinnacle of Western civilization in its time.

If I were to give this work a score it would be a 98/100 or an A+