Sep 15 2009
Decline and Fall
Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is quite a reading project, to be sure, even if you stick to the first three volumes which take the story to the end of the western empire. But there’s more to it than the first “modern” work of history; He can deploy some enjoyable prose:
The pride and avarice of his mother cast a shade on the glories of his reign; and by exacting from his riper years the same dutiful obedience which she had justly claimed from his inexperienced youth, Mamaea exposed to public ridicule, both her son’s character and her own.
Also, his notes (pioneering the modern use of footnotes) are numerous, and in many cases delightful:
Vitellius consumed in mere eating, at least six millions of our money in about seven months. It is not easy to express his vices with dignity, or even decency. Tacitus fairly calls him a hog; but it is by substituting to a coarse word a very fine image.
In short, it can be a rewarding periodic read, that I pick up now and then, and probably won’t finish for a decade or so. But still worth it.
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