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The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon (Volume One) is a classic, definitive, heavy, credible account of this period of antiquity. Initially, I was wary of embarking on this six-volume epic as Gibbon was strutting his stuff all the way back in the 1700’s. For this reason, I expected his writing to be inaccessible, stuffy even. But what a mistake on my part – his writing is so very understandable, and in fact, adds plenty to this wonderful subject matter. It really does – I found myself even reading some passages and then sitting there thinking – Wow, that was beautifully explained. Really!!

”The caprice of Hadrian influenced his choice of a successor. After revolving in his mind several men of distinguished merit, whom he esteemed and hated, he adopted Verus, a gay and voluptuous nobleman, recommended by uncommon beauty to the lover of Antinous”

That is so delicately, and perfectly put.

Also, this, regarding my favourite Emperor, Trajan:

”……above two hundred and fifty years after the death of Trajan, the senate, in pouring out customary acclamations on the accession of a new emperor, wished that he might surpass the felicity of Augustus, and the virtue of Trajan”

How brilliant is that? Couldn’t you read that all night long?

Interestingly, this first volume commences with a fifty-page summary of the life of Gibbon. This is a great way to start this book, understanding the man himself lends the reader an insight into why he chose Roman History as an important subject for him, his work on other periods of history and his personal life. It helps us understand the way this book is written.

Following the introduction Gibbon describes how the military is structured and how it functions, he also identifies the provinces (there’s a great map at the back of the book) and he spends some time describing certain aspects of the empire, such as the roads, trade, slaves, agriculture and much more – to provide the reader with a very, very brief snapshot of the place.

Then we get stuck into the interesting bits – starting from the first emperor, Augustus in 27 BCE, we systematically go through each emperor all the way to the death of emperor Licinius in 324 CE, that’s almost SIXTY EMPERORS!! A veritable feast of fun. But the way Gibbon presents this isn’t by way of 57 neatly titled chapters – it just rolls on like one continuous story. Yes, there are sections/chapters, but they’re not divided by rulers, more so by topics of interest – which also flows in chronological order.

Gibbon completes this first volume with a wonderful introduction of the Progress of the Christian Religion, this sets us up nicely for the commencement of Volume Two – where we go to The conduct of the Roman Government towards the Christians, from Nero to Constantine.

So, everything flows wonderfully. It is difficult to knock off a hundred pages in a sitting because there is so much information. I chose to read ten to fifteen pages just before I slept, after spending a few hours on my other (main) read – and it sets me off for a good night’s sleep, reflecting on the dramas of around eighteen hundred years ago.

One other thing, there are no diagrams – perhaps his wonderful way of words means they’re not necessary, and each page contains numerous footnotes – detailing more information and the references used. All of the references are what you’d expect including Dio, Tacitus, Livy, Suetonius, Historia Augusta (for what that is worth), Herodian and many, many more – these footnotes are there for the serious historian. The fundamentalist, the extremist – not for us hobby enthusiasts.

I must stop this review now as I’ll bang on merrily for five hundred pages – this is so, so, so GOOD!

5 Stars