Publisher Description
Gibbon's masterpiece on Rome is a monument of literature and a model of modern historical research. There has never been anything quite like it since its publication between 1776 and 1788. Although some of Gibbon's views are considered controversial today, there is no doubt that his research and patient devotion to scholarship produced one of the most valuable and renowned histories of all time.
Gibbon begins his story during the height of the Roman Empire under the Antonines. From there we are shown how the Roman civilization began a long, agonizing slide into chaos and debauchery. Although it is a story familiar to many, never has it been told with such panache and vigor. Volume one comes to an end with the accession of the Emperors Gratian and Valentinian II in the year A.D. 375.The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire will continue in Volumes two and three.
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About Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon (1737–1794), an English historian and member of Parliament, had little formal education. He went to Oxford, but was forced to leave when he converted to Roman Catholicism. His family then sent him to Lausanne, where he was reconverted to Protestantism. His most important work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.