The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 2

Title: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 2

Author: Edward Gibbon

Publisher: Everyman’s Library, 1993 (First published 1781)

ISBN: 9781857150957

Pages: 592

 

This is the second volume of Gibbon’s great work published in 1781. This volume deals with Constantine, the emperor who accepted Christianity and firmly rooted it as the state religion in Europe which still continues and his successors for four generations till Valentinian I. This period is notable by the reign of Julian, who was a nephew of Constantine. Julian turned back to the cultural roots of Rome and Greece and reinstated the native religion for a brief period. The era handled in this book also describes the growing antagonism with the Persian Empire on the east and the barbarians on the north who were getting more belligerent after the term of each emperor. We also read about the most fundamental schism in Christianity that separated the followers of Arrian from the mainstream. The spiritual dissensions had overflowed to the streets and both sides were locked in pitched battles in many provinces of the empire. When the volume ends, we see faint traces of the Gothic threat on the empire’s northern border as the barbarians increasingly find assimilation in the Roman military. Enervation is setting in in the Roman society which increasingly turns to mercenary troops to fight its battles.

 

Like what he did in the first volume, Gibbon earmarks a considerable amount of space to highlight the specific case of Christianity and how it was different from other religions including Judaism, from which it diverged. It was initially a sect of people who separated themselves from the communion of mankind claiming exclusive possession of divine knowledge and disdained every form of worship except its own as impious and idolatrous. Roman policy viewed with distrust any association of people, however harmless. Christians regularly met in secret for their religious services. The number of martyrs was very inconsiderable. The Jews, on the other hand, were a nation while the Christians were a sect. Every Christian – newly converted – rejected the beliefs of his family, his city or province with contempt. With Constantine’s ascent to the purple, the roles of persecutor and patron were interchanged between Christianity and paganism.

 

Christians enjoyed great tolerance and prosperity most of the time. Gibbon notes with a touch of mischief that this was far more dangerous to their virtue than the severest trials of persecution. The pagan jurisprudence was also far more enlightened than we see even today in countries which follow religious law. The charge was communicated to the accused party well in advance. This allowed him to flee and return when the coast is clear again. Bribing the judge to obtain a false certificate of compliance was also feasible. But the fanatics among Christians denounced these avenues and craved to become martyrs in order to attain the joys of heaven. They abhorred life on earth and sought ways to step into the afterlife. Sometimes they rudely disturbed the festivals and profaned the temples of paganism with the design of exciting the idolaters to take revenge on them. They compelled the judges to give orders for their immediate execution.

 

We read from Gibbon’s examination of the Christian clergy that their moral precepts were far laxer than the present even though believers usually dream up a glorious past when everything was just about perfect. Paul of Samosata was one such corrupt bishop of Antioch. He extorted money from the rich and diverted it for personal use. He freely indulged in the pleasures of the table and received two young and beautiful women into the episcopal palace as the constant companions of his leisure moments. But public opinion was not supportive to this gesture and they did not buy into his probable argument that he had done it to test his vows of chastity. Evidently, Gandhians were still far away in the distant future. Fellow bishops ousted him with their own authority and Aurelian confirmed it. The whole body of the clergy was exempt from all public service, all municipal offices and all personal taxes which pressed on their fellow citizens with intolerable weight. The duties of their holy profession were accepted as a full discharge of their obligations to the republic. Seeing the novel ways of corruption in the clergy, Valentinian enforced an edict that forbade the clergy from receiving any gift, legacy or inheritance from their rich spiritual daughters. It also admonished them not to frequent the houses of widows and virgins. Christianity was moving towards its first schism around this time. In the course of their internal dissensions, the Christians have inflicted far greater severities on each other than they had experienced from the zeal of infidels.

 

Constantine proves the dictum that a lost member is one added enemy as far as religions are concerned. He was the first Roman emperor to leave paganism, but demolition of temples was already being celebrated as one of the auspicious events of his and his sons’ reigns. The terrors of a military force silenced the faint and unsupported murmurs of the Pagans. But the emperor was also the sovereign pontiff of paganism. Thus, the Christian emperors were invested with a more absolute authority over the religion which they had deserted over that which they professed. Zealous emperors used this pole position to further weaken the native religion. At the same time, Constantine persecuted heretic sects within Christianity with as much ruthlessness as the religion had itself suffered at the hands of his predecessors. He in fact believed that he is saving those from eternal damnation in hell.

 

The long line of Roman emperors after Constantine is dignified by his nephew Julian, who was named ‘the apostate’ by the Church as he renounced Christianity and went back to paganism. He was not the natural leader after Constantine’s death as his sons received the purple investiture. Julian was kept at an arm’s length from the capital city of Constantinople and left to deal with fierce barbarians who were getting more cumbersome and bolder with the passage of each decade. Julian was made the governor of Gaul threatened by German barbarians under the careful scrutiny of his cousin Constantius who was the emperor. Julian defeated the Alemanni tribes at the Battle of Strasbourg, a battle in which the Germans possessed the superiority of strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper and won. When Constantius suddenly died at the time when Julian had raised the banner of rebellion, he was elevated to the throne with the open support of the army of Gaul. Julian was humane and philosophic. His decrees were always founded on the principles of justice and permitted toleration of all religions. But he encouraged the native temples incurring huge expenditure from the state treasury. The scarcest and most beautiful birds were transported from distant climates to bleed on the altars of the gods. And he repaired and decorated ancient temples. Julian was killed during his Persian invasion from an injury inflicted by an enemy soldier.

 

This volume includes an extensive survey of the bureaucracy, taxation and jurisprudence under Constantine. Many of its features Christianity would later emulate in its ecclesiastical administration. Constantine sent missionaries to different parts of the known world to spread the gospel. Gibbon comments that ‘the rays of the Gospel illuminated the coast of India’ (p. 276).as if the coast of India was plunged in darkness without it! As this volume ends, we find the empire engaged in an uneasy and precarious peace with its Persian neighbours and forceful subjugation of the barbarians on its north which was slowly getting slackened to the eventual detriment of Rome. As it stands, Volume 2 is a good stepping stone to move on to the later volumes.

 

The book is highly recommended.

 

Rating: 4 Star