The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 5

Title: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol 5

Author: Edward Gibbon

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

ISBN: 9780679435938

Pages: 662

 

This volume is vast in its geographical and chronological extent. In one giant leap, Gibbon crosses six centuries of time and the great expanse of land from Spain to Afghanistan. The author continues the tale from Heraclius when Islam reared its head in Arabia and stops just short of the Latin conquest of Constantinople in the Fourth Crusade in 1204. The number of monarchs is so large that readers lose track of their pedigree and posterity. It is also the era in which Islam miraculously catapulted itself to the brink of world dominion in the first two centuries of its existence and then its political arm invariably followed the path of decline and fall. Gibbon notes the striking similarities – especially in decline – between the Roman and Islamic empires both of which found its trunk cut off by the arms and weapons of the barbarians. The term ‘barbarian’ should not be confused with the plain dictionary meaning. Gibbon only intends the people residing outside the original pale of the empire. We find that these people faithfully imitate the practices of the citizens and aspire to be the masters of the empire eventually. Another notable feature of this volume is the increase in ferocity of religious wars. The winning side often extends only the two alternatives of death or conversion to the losing side. We also find southern Europe dominated by Muslim kings in this period. The author omits all references to the crusades. Perhaps he reserves it for the final volume. The rise of the Pope as the spiritual as well as temporal power is discernible in this interval which also meant the impossibility of reconciliation between the different sects of Christianity. This volume contains chapters from 47 to 56.

 

Gibbon begins with an analysis of the fissure in Christian society as it spread universally. Since the core beliefs were borrowed from Judaism, Christian Jews found no problem in reconciling themselves with the concept of trinity in which Jesus was retained as human with all attendant vulnerabilities of the flesh. When the new religion was preached to the gentiles and then to Romans, who were steeped in idolatry, the new converts wanted to deify Jesus. This led to severe disputes and controversies. Early Christian sects were more solicitous to explore the nature of Christ rather than obeying his laws. One such theory ascribed to Christ the body of a phantom which seemed to suffer on the cross while the divine spirit, which was a part of the first person of the trinity, remained unperturbed. It was clear that a person who suffered pain and ignominy at death cannot be sold to the pagans who expected their objects of worship to be superhuman. Hence a theory was put forward that specified ‘a substantial, indissoluble and everlasting union of a perfect god with a perfect man, or the second person of the trinity, with a reasonable soul and human flesh’. The fanaticism of the early converts was legendary. An incident in the life of Cyril, hailed as the saint of Alexandria, is given. His accomplices waylaid the female mathematician Hypatia, stripped her naked, dragged to the church and inhumanly butchered her by scraping the flesh from bones with the help of sharp oyster-shells (p.18). “May those who divide Christ be divided with the sword, may they be hewn in pieces, may they be burnt alive” were the charitable wishes of a synod (p.32).

 

Gibbon fast forwards his narrative from Heraclius in 627 to Andronicus in 1204 when Constantinople was conquered by the Latins. 600 years saw the reign of sixty emperors. The succession was rapid and broken and the name of a successful candidate is speedily erased by a more fortunate competitor. The favourites of the soldiers, people, senate, clergy, royal women or eunuchs were alternately clothed with the purple but their end was often contemptible and tragic. Their condition was most pregnant with fear and the least hopeful. The army was licentious without spirit, the nation turbulent without freedom, the barbarians pressed on the monarchy and the loss of the provinces was terminated by the final servitude of the capital. The Muslims invaded from all sides and Syria and Asia Minor were soon under the caliph’s reign. The caliph was also pestered by barbarians belonging to his own religion and these fierce fighters demanded and enjoyed large sums as subsidy from the Greek emperor.

 

While the Eastern Roman empire was declining to the point of downfall, interesting things were happening on the western front. No semblance of an emperor was entertained in Italy and the Frankish and German tribes practiced their own ideas of monarchy. The spectre of Christianity was forever forfeited by the Eastern empire and it eventually settled in the hands of powerful kings like Charlemagne or Frederick. Islam was surging north from their foothold in Spain in a bid to overwhelm the entire continent. Charles Martel stopped their influx with a magnificent victory in the Battle of Tours in 732. Surprisingly, this victory permanently eliminated the Islamic threat. Pepin and Charlemagne were Charles’ descendants and the Popes used these princes to subdue Lombards and deliver Rome from captivity. With the royal residence going out of Italy, the Pope became the absolute ruler of Rome and its surrounding provinces. We read of many Popes who persevered to install a temporal kingdom of their own. Pope Adrian I issued a forged document which conferred the right of administration of Rome as a gift from Emperor Constantine when St. Sylvester had cured him of leprosy with baptismal water. This document is now universally rejected as forgery, but it still forms the foundation of canon law. Gibbon also presents the Normans as a formidable force to reckon with. Likewise, the Scandinavians and Russians also enter the stage at this point.

 

Gibbon is excited about the birth of Islam to the point of partiality. The book includes a long chapter on Mohammed and his life which is presented in an exalting and uncritical manner. This chapter is superfluous to the thread of narrative on Roman history, but makes for interesting reading. This also seems to be the only chapter in which Gibbon blindly repeats secondary sources. The birth of the final prophet of Islam was fortunately placed in the most degenerate and disorderly period of the Romans, Persians and the barbarians of Europe. The author then makes a wry comment that ‘the empires of Trajan or even of Constantine and Charlemagne would have repelled the assaults of the naked Saracens, and the torrent of fanaticism might have been obscurely lost in the sands of Arabia’ (p.331). The spread of Islam is given due importance. Its conquest of Syria, Persia, Egypt, North Africa and Spain materialized in the first few decades after Mohammed’s death. Christianity was in theory tolerated by paying the tribute of Jizya charged per head. But the ground realities were markedly different. Only a century later, bigotry marginalized the Christian communities to numerical irrelevance. The author laments that the northern coast of Africa was the only land in which the light of the Gospel, after a long and perfect establishment, has been totally extinguished (p.424).

 

This volume introduces the hefty load of servitude the Muslim caliphs imposed on their Christian subjects who painfully suffered the indignities of abuse and discrimination. Instead of horses or mules, Christians were condemned to ride on asses, in the manner of women. Their private and public buildings must be smaller. It was their duty to give way in the street or bath even to the meanest Muslim (p.428). The pomp of processions, the sound of church bells or psalmody were prohibited. Infringing on the religious services of Christians, the preachers were forced to include a decent reverence to Islam in their sermons to the laity. Christians were forbidden to convert a Muslim to their religion but the reverse was encouraged and shamelessly incentivized. Gibbon addresses the question of the quick downfall of the caliphate after one or two centuries and unthinkingly gurgles out the traditional Islamic explanation that the latter caliphs deviated from the path of austerity and righteousness set by the prophet and his companions. It is claimed that temporal and spiritual conquest had been the sole occupation of the first caliphs who did not indulge in luxury. However, the Abbasids were after pomp and grandeur. Their stern enthusiasm was softened by time and prosperity. They sought riches in the occupation of industry, fame in the pursuit of literature and happiness in the tranquility of domestic life. This in fact means that when the Muslims turned away from fanaticism to the belief systems of normal people, they lost steam and alienated worldly power.

 

As in the previous volumes, some mention of Gibbon’s white-supremacist and racist references should be pointed out. Introducing the St. Thomas Christians of Kerala, he remarks condescendingly that ‘in arms, in arts and possibly in virtue, they excelled the natives of Hindostan’ (p.63). In a double whammy on Nestorian creed and black people, he claims that the ancient kingdom of Nubia accepted the Monophysite sect, but ‘a metaphorical religion may appear too refined for the capacity of the Negro race: yet a black or a parrot might be taught to repeat the words of the Chalcedonian or Monophysite creed’ (p.78). Then he takes his aim on Asians and hits hard: ‘the arts and genius of history have ever been unknown to the Asiatics; they are ignorant of the laws of criticism; and our monkish chronicles of the same period may be compared to their most popular works, which are never vivified by the spirit of philosophy or freedom’ (p.332). It is in this xenophobic intellectual climate that the British historian Thomas Babington Macaulay blurted out barely half a century later that ‘a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia’. It is also indicative of how prejudiced and narrow were the vision of the most legendary scholars of Britain when race was pushed into their consideration.

 

The book is highly recommended.

 

Rating: 4 Star