The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 1

Title: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 1

Author: Edward Gibbon

Publisher: Everyman’s Library, 1993 (First published 1776)

ISBN: 9781857150957

Pages: 567

 

I have always considered the Decline and Fall as a unique reading experience which I would undertake at least once before my life reaches its end. Celebrated as the greatest historical work in English, it had always allured me as a beacon of scholarship and masterful prose through snippets and quotations in other books. Our public library had only an incomplete set and however long I waited, the missing volume was never replaced. That’s why these full volume hardbacks were purchased from Amazon at a price which caused some heartburn. Anyway, since I may never read a book of this stature again, I took the plunge. Edward Gibbon is the first modern European historian who wrote these volumes while the East India Company was consolidating its hold on Bengal. The first volume handling the period between the death of Trajan and ascent of Constantine was published in 1776 and the last of the six came out in 1788. It was challenged all the time but no criticism has ever been able to sink it.

 

The Introduction to the volume presents Gibbon as an uncertain author in the initial stages of his career who was not sure about what to write and where to begin. French was the language of choice for respected company in Europe. Gibbon wrote the first section of his ‘Liberty of the Swiss’ in French and showed it to his mentor David Hume, the Scottish philosopher. Hume appreciated the effort but asked his disciple to write in English. It was the time the Seven Years’ War had ended with England’s glorious victory over France. Canada was annexed to the British Empire. Along with the future USA, Hume predicted ‘a superior stability and endurance to the English language’. If not for this intervention, Gibbon might have written the ‘Decline and Fall’ in French and thus deprived English literature of a great monument. The Swiss episode was later abandoned. The author decided to write on Rome at the end of a grand tour to Italy, the climax of which was a visit to Rome. Gibbon notes in his memoirs on how he finalized the object of his study: “It was at Rome, on the 15^th of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the capitol, while the bare-footed friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started in my mind”.

 

Considering the early-modern period in which this work was written, various axioms of historiography were being evolved. In medieval Europe, religious scholars handled history as well and they assigned divine providence as the reason for movement of historical forces. Civil historians could not override this methodology with ease. They postulated a first and second cause thereby admitting to God’s agency the first and main cause of history. But they argued that in order to achieve His ends, God allowed the operation of secondary causes which were purely secular and could be properly studied and judged by unaided human reason. Gibbon sought to answer the great historical question which haunted the enlightened philosophers: why did the civilization of antiquity fail and could it all happen again? He introduced into England the new constructive historical method suggested by Giannone and Montesquieu. Gibbon concluded that the Roman Empire, during its fall, excluded the public spirit which is the vitalizing principle necessary to the health of a society.

 

The Roman Empire and its aftermath spread through history like an overarching continuity that nourished and developed the state of being in Europe for centuries to come. Rome’s grandeur is not measured by geographical extent alone. Alexander’s and Chengiz Khan’s empires were definitely larger. But the firm edifice of Roman power was raised and preserved by the wisdom of ages. The obedient provinces were united by laws and arts. The general principle of government was wise, simple and beneficent. Rome’s fall began when the soldiers became too powerful to be controlled by the emperor or the senate. Stability immediately gave way to military coups that occurred at the slightest irritation of the troops who went on to kill the reigning monarch and assign the purple to a puppet of their choice. The Praetorian Guards whose licentious fury was the first symptomatic cause of the decline of the Roman Empire. They were instituted by Augustus to guard his person, to awe the senate and to prevent rebellion. In the luxurious idleness of Rome, created by the fighting efficiency of the legionaries who guarded the empire’s frontiers, their pride was nourished by the sense of their irresistible weight. Their modus operandi involved getting donatives for themselves from the newly selected emperor. In 193 CE, they disposed Pertinax from the throne and auctioned it to the highest bidder. Didius Julianus purchased it with the best offer of recompense to the guards. But he also was removed in a violent manner by another group within a matter of weeks.

 

Paganism was the dominant religion in the Roman Empire. It was not at all organized and went about its functions without dogma or the authority of a revealed book. It worshipped numerous deities but was inclusive. The devout polytheist admitted with implicit faith the different religions of the earth. The Greek, the Roman and the barbarian, as they met before their respective altars, easily persuaded themselves that under various names and with various ceremonies, they adored the same deity. This syncretic religious landscape was vitiated with the arrival of Christianity which asserted itself to be the only true religion and believed its god to be the only true one. If they had stopped at that, things would have been probably easier for them. But they went on to abuse the native religion and proclaimed their deities to be demons or forms of devil. It was at this point that they were persecuted. Christians refused to participate in the civil administration or the military defence of the empire, which was attacked on every side by barbarians. However, the Christian proselytizers avoided any contact with learned pagan philosophers and mingled only with the rude and illiterate crowd who were vulnerable. Gibbon observes that illustrious men like Seneca, Tacitus, elder and younger Pliny or Marcus Antoninus overlooked or rejected ‘the perfection of the Christian system’. Even those who condescended to mention the Christians consider them as perverse and obstinate enthusiasts without being able to produce a single argument that could engage the attention of men of sense and learning (p.564).

 

This volume ends with the ascension of Constantine who was the first emperor to embrace Christianity and was instrumental in transforming it as the state religion later on. Gibbon analyses the reasons and situations which prompted the new intolerant and dogmatic faith to take such strong roots in the empire. He lists out five major causes for this change: 1) the inflexible and intolerant zeal 2) doctrine of a future life 3) miraculous powers ascribed to the primitive church 4) pure and austere morals and 5) union and discipline of the Christian society. Early Christians were certain of their sins and doubtful of their salvation who shunned anything that delighted the senses. The censures of luxury included avoidance of false hair, fine garments, music and vases of gold and silver. The virtue of the primitive Christians was thus guarded by poverty and ignorance. Only about five per cent of the people had adopted Christianity before the important conversion of Constantine. But their habits of faith, zeal and union seemed to multiply their number and contributed to their future increase. This also served to render their actual strength more apparent and formidable.

 

This is a great work of modern scholarship and a philosophical interpretation of the most important turning point in European history. Gibbon’s calm narrative is of rich ornamentation with masterly power and lucidity. The unfortunate Valerian, who was the only Roman emperor to be captured alive in a war with Persia and subjected to great humiliation, and the rebellious Zenobia are the two personalities who attract readers’ attention in this first volume. This volume is also endowed with a brilliant introduction by Hugh Trevor-Ropes. This book contains only the first fifteen chapters of the series, of which chapter 15 was especially criticized by the church for its truly factual description of the activities of the early church. Altogether, this is an excellent groundwork for what is to follow in the other volumes.

 

The book is highly recommended.

 

Rating: 5 Star