It's a series of six volumes that few people, excluding historians, read today. Putting all of them next to each other can make for an imposing sight. Nonetheless, powering through the work turned out to be a more fruitful experience than the first few pages might suggest.
How I First Became Acquainted With the Work
One Christmas day, my father offered me a curious looking box that held six, beautifully formed books. Unfortunately, it was a little early to offer such a gift to a fourteen year old child, but I trusted that it would serve me in the future.
Fast forward two years... I was looking forward to a class that was going to be taught by a summer professor. To orient myself with his area of study, I read his book that mostly revolved around Samuel Johnson's life and literary contributions. Included in the book was a name that struck a bell in my head: Edward Gibbon.
After confirming that the box of six books on my bookshelf were indeed written by that author, I then remembered that I had tried starting the first volume a few years ago and got lost at the first page. My friend and I had tried finding the most complex sentence on each page, which was incomprehensible to us back then. With two more years on me, I decided it was time to tackle the series that has actually led to quite a bit of controversy both among readers during Gibbon's time and scholars nowadays.
Why Read the Work?
I entered the first volume to learn about Gibbon's perspective, entertain my curiosity about the Roman world, and understand why readers nowadays disagree with some of his opinions. Now, I can offer what I believe to be the best parts of the work.
Firstly, the way in which Gibbon compares the Roman empire's different leaders is evocative and insightful, since it reveals which personality traits allow for a stable leadership. Some emperors act purely out of greed (avarice, as Gibbon likes to say) and are deliberately violent towards their people in order to usurp the most amount of power that they can in their lifespan. Others were detested by the senate because they could tell that the emperor had self-centered intentions, despite the fact that they pioneered beneficial change in the Roman infrastructure. And still there were some who were genuinely well-intentioned and slightly timid (pusillanimous is how Gibbon phrased it), but did not get the approval of their surroundings. Since Gibbon focuses primarily on the decline of the empire, not much of the bright side of the empire is touched on except for at the very beginning. However, some successful emperors like Marcus Aurelius (whose quote from his Meditations is at the forefront of my site) turned to philosophy/reflection and actually ended up establishing positions of success within the administration of the empire.
At the beginning of Chapter 12, this is how Gibbon puts it: "Such was the unhappy condition of Roman emperors, that whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder." Once you read the book, you cannot agree more with this statement.
Somewhat scattered across Gibbon's historical accounts are some of his valuable contemplations about humankind where he speaks in general terms. Here is another passage near the beginning of the 4th chapter:
"Most of the crimes which disturb the internal peace of society are produced by the restraints which the necessary, but unequal, laws of property have imposed on the appetites of mankind, by confining to a few the possession of those objects that are coveted by many. Of all our passions and appetites, the love of power is one of the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude." Setting aside the gender specific language (since this can apply to any human), Gibbon manages to capture the essence of what leads to civil division among humans. People are always looking to own the objects which so few can afford, all out of a natural desire for power, and it leads people to become unsociable and confined. He continues as follows:
"In the tumult of civil discord, the laws of society lose their force, and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity. The ardour of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to silence the voice of pity."
These gems are more valuable to me than the rest of his analysis on the Roman world, since they eloquently manage to summarize broad tendencies which define us as human beings. He does, however, manage to artfully connect these statements to the Romans, which makes for an enjoyable experience as a reader.
Why Not to Read the Work?
The problem with Gibbon's series is that his hypothesis has already been disproven. He attributes the decline of the Roman world partly due to Christianity's influence on secular affairs, which, according to contemporary scholars, does not fully analyze the changes in religion and culture at the time.
I lose sight of what Gibbon is trying to say in the fifteenth and sixteenth chapters. He goes off on tangents about religion, which include stereotypes and broad generalizations, that ultimately have weak connections to his argument about the Roman empire. In the last two chapters alone, the Romans are barely mentioned, instead being replaced by his condescending view of the Jewish and Christian religions/sects.
In the end, the reason to read his book revolves not around Gibbon's argument, but his beautiful, luscious descriptions that bring to life an ancient world as if he were there to see it. His extensive research and citations are a formidable feat since it makes the reader feel as if Gibbon was on the front of the Roman battleground, and some of the comparisons that he draws are valuable to readers who want to know how his work applies to them. Though this book does not make it near my Top 10 list, I am still happy that I invested my free time in delving through Gibbon's research and imagination, and I offer this post to help you decide whether you should too.
11/26/19