The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 4

Title: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 4

Author: Edward Gibbon

Publisher: Everyman’s Library, 1993 (First published 1788)

ISBN: 9780679435938

Pages: 598

 

This volume includes chapters 37 to 46, which begins with Zeno’s reign in Constantinople and Clovis’ rise as the dictator of the Franks and ends with the decisive victory of Heraclius over the Persians which left both the Roman and Persian empires desolate and vulnerable to the Islamic caliphate which had just originated contemporaneously. The time period of this volume is from 476 to 628 CE. Gibbon had originally intended to complete the work in three volumes till 476 CE, with the fall of the Western empire. Later he decided to carry it over to the fall of the Eastern empire in 1453. As such, this volume incorporates an introduction by Hugh Trevor-Roper which is much shorter than the one he wrote for the first volume. Trevor-Roper emphasizes Gibbon’s lack of enthusiasm for the Byzantine empire.

 

In Volume 3, Gibbon had described the downward spiral of the empire without going into the mechanics of it. He is much more forthright in this volume and the decay of Rome is ascribed to immoderate greatness. He suggests that instead of enquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should be surprised that it had subsisted for so long. The seeds of degeneration were germinated in the military ranks. The victorious legions acquired the vices of strangers and mercenaries which led them to oppress the freedom of the republic and afterwards to violate the majesty of the rulers. The emperors were reduced to corrupting the military discipline and its fighting spirit sagged. We read about sovereigns trembling at the rebellion of soldiers and utilizing the kingdom’s scarce resources to vainly placate the misbehaving troops. Seldom did the military commanders preside over citizen troops. When barbarians attacked, the citizens and their ruler cowered and sought asylum behind the city’s walls leading to a siege that caused immense pain as it got elongated. When famine conditions become unbearable, they submit to the humiliating terms of the conquerors and a ruthless pillage follows. All wealth that can be found would be taken away and the ablest and fairest inhabitants of both sexes would be forced into slavery. We read about several such episodes.

 

Gibbon alleges that Christianity also had some influence on the decline and fall. It had reached the pinnacle of unquestioned spiritual glory by this time as the one and only faith of the empire. The clergy preached the doctrine of patience and pusillanimity. The last remains of military spirit were buried in monasteries. Monastic life in general and in Egypt and Syria in particular demanded the most severe penances. Sometimes they even abandoned costumes. These destroyed the sensibility of the mind and body. These fanatics were unable of any lively affection for mankind. A cruel, unfeeling temper distinguished the monks of every age and country. Their indifference was inflamed by religious hatred. A large portion of the public and private wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion. Theological discord led to the birth of sects whose internecine conflicts were sometimes bloody and implacable. The attention of the emperors was diverted from military camps to religious synods. The persecuted sects became the secret enemy of their country. All these factors took its toll in varying proportions on the empire’s downfall.

 

A central figure in this stage of Roman history is Emperor Justinian and he is given due recognition in the book. He ruled for 38 years and conveyed a façade of stability to the regime though on a personal level his talents were only mediocre at its best. His name is eclipsed by that of his victorious generals such as Belisarius and Narses who subjugated the rebellious provinces like Africa and Italy. Gibbon comments on his florid style that Justinian was neither beloved in his life nor regretted in his death. Rather than directing the empire’s legions against the enemy, he played one barbarian group against the other – Goths against Vandals, Avars against Lombards. Religious bigotry forced him to close down the philosophic schools of Athens as a permanent rupture with paganism and Greek culture. This act is conventionally taken as the beginning of Dark Ages. As he officially ended the long line of Greek philosophers that extended a millennium before, seven of them escaped to the Persian court of Chosroes. But they were soon disenchanted with the despotism and venality of the Persian court and wanted to come back to Greece. Chosroes mediated a pardon for the seven sages that they should be exempted from the penal laws enacted against pagan subjects. Justinian’s reign also witnessed some traces of the intermingling of social classes. The emperor was probably the first monarch to marry an actress! His wife Theodora was a celebrity at the theatre. She was a bold woman who performed nude scenes on stage. Justinian scrapped the rule prohibiting marriage of patricians with people of low birth and accepted her as an equal and independent colleague on the throne. We read about her stratagems to concentrate power in her hands and to destroy her enemies, sometimes physically.

 

This volume includes a survey of Roman jurisprudence and law codes that existed at the time of Justinian. Some curious aspects of the Roman law are elucidated by Gibbon and we see in them the height of patriarchy at its invasive best. The father was perpetually dominant over his offspring. An adult son can enjoy the privileges of a citizen in public, but at home he was the personal property of his father. He could even be sold as a slave and only with the third sale would he be relieved of his filial obligations. The patriarch possessed the power of life and death over his children. When Justinian ascended the throne, the reform of Roman jurisprudence was long overdue. In the space of ten centuries, the infinite variety of laws and legal opinions had filled many thousand volumes, which no one could procure or study in any detail. Justinian appointed seventeen lawyers with Tribonian at their head to exercise an absolute jurisdiction over the works of their predecessors and to come up with an updated code of law. The modern Common Law is based on Justinian’s code.

 

Volume 4 ends at a potent stage in which profound changes are in the air. The Romans and Persians, the two most powerful empires in the world at that time, are locked in a mortal combat which would thoroughly exhaust the former and would prove fatal for the latter. Heraclius was on the Roman throne. He was attacked from the European side by Avars on Persian behest and from the Asian side by Persians under Chosroes II. The Persian emperor had a dream run in the beginning like his ancestor Darius did more than a millennium ago and this time they conquered Egypt and Carthage. Roman empire was reduced to the walls of Constantinople and the remnants of Greece, Italy and Africa. Christians were persecuted by the Zoroastrians. Heraclius made an unbelievable comeback and chased Chosroes to the gates of his own palace at Ctesiphon. In 627, at the nadir of defeat, Chosroes was usurped by his son, but he could not safely keep the throne which was ascended by nine kings in four years. It was this emaciated Persian Empire that fell victim to the Islamic thrust from Arabia, leading one to wonder how history would have run differently had the two great empires were on more friendly terms. We read about Prophet Mohammed’s epistle to Chosroes exhorting him to embrace Islam and the emperor tearing away the letter in disgust.

 

The scholar in Gibbon laments that the commerce between Rome and China brought silk instead of printing which was already in existence there. Great works of Rome could have been preserved in that way. Writing in parchment ran the tedious task of re-copying every few centuries and thus making the text vulnerable to errors or modifications by the copyists. It is amusing to note occasional eruptions of colonial pride or even blatant racism in Gibbon’s text which was not at all offensive to the public sentiment in his time. Regarding the people of Colchis he says, “The curled hair and swarthy complexion of Africa no longer disfigure the most perfect of the human race” (p.350). On another occasion he is more blunt: “The hand of nature has flattened the noses of the Negroes, covered their heads with shaggy wool and tinged their skin with inherent and indelible blackness” (p.362).

 

The book is highly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star