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| The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 3
Paperback
Author: Edward Gibbon
Publisher: Wildside Press
Release Date: 2004-01-31
ISBN-10: 0809592371
ISBN-13: 9780809592371
List Price: $24.95
Average Customer Rating:
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
This is an abridged edition of Gibbon's classic. Concentrating on the centuries from the age of the Antonines to the fall of the empire in the West, this volume chronicles "the triumph of barbarism and religion" in the disruption of the unified empire, the rise of Christianity, the progress of the Huns from China and the revolt of the Goths.
The Ultimate History of the Decline and Fall
| Customer Rating: | | I ordered both sets of this series, the first includes vols. 1-3 and the second is vols. 4-6. They are beautifully bound and although they are hardbound, they are the small size for which Everyman's Library is well known. The first boxed set covers the fall of the Western Empire, while the second deals with the Eastern Empire. Although I have not finished the books,so far the history is meticulously written and copiously footnoted. The introduction is a must, as it explains not only the biography of Gibbon, but the importance of the book as a historical explanation, rather than just a recitation of facts. |
Hey, Ed! I Only Have 16 Years of Schooling-Take it Easy
| Customer Rating:  | The title of this piece is more of a plea than a statement, but then again, I don't think Ed can hear me regardless.
For non-academics which I surely am, this tome is unreadable. While I wasn't exactly contemplating an easy read, I never expected a rapture equaling the best/worst Shakespeare had to offer with his 21,000 word vocabulary. I don't doubt nor argue the positive critiques of Gibbon's masterpiece but hey, I read for pleasure with a certain amount of enlightenment thrown in. This stuff is beyond my pay grade.
Good luck to all of you there getting ready settle down for the first time with this goliath of 17th century prose. Bring your lunch!The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 3 |
free on the net
| Customer Rating: | | Edward Gibbon's The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire entire volume 1-6 are available for free on Project gutenberg. Don't pay Amazon Kindle money for something free legally on the net. |
A Classic Work of History
| Customer Rating: | This widely acknowledged classic work of English literature should be required reading for any class on Ancient History. The story of the Roman Republic and the early years of the Empire are widely known. However, the slow death spiral beginning after the reign of Augustus is not nearly as well known as it should be.
I confess to knowing only part of the story prior to hearing Gibbon's narrator recite the repeated murders and intrigues visited upon Emperor after Emperor. To have been Roman Emperor from the years 100 A.D. to 400 A.D. was to enjoy the life span of a mayfly.
To read a roll call of Emperors during the period is to go through dozens of short lived leaders (some of mere weeks and months), mostly murdered and replaced by the Praetorian guard, with a smattering of competent longer lived leaders such as Clodius, Marcus Aurelius, Domitian and Constantine.
Such a disfunctional method of leadership selection, coupled with repeated incursions by Goths, Vandals and Huns ultimately spelled an end to the Western Roman Empire.
The audio version of this work is very well presented in its abridged form through the use of two narrators, one to read the actual words of Gibbon, while the other summarizes the abridged text. Despite the slightly dated form of English used by writers of Gibbons' age, the work was quite easy to follow with the possible exception of the chapter dealing with the rise and spread of Christianity throughout the Empire.
While I cannot pass upon the readability of the unabridged text, I can highly recommend the abridged audio version which I enjoyed. |
The Book
| Customer Rating: | First one thing: do not, on any account, get the abridged version. If I could take one book to a desert island, it would be this one. That's because it is extremely long, and every word of it is worth it.
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire remains as relevant as ever. And this is in spite of its hugely ambitious scope, treating of the history of the Roman and Byzantine empires (both considered Roman by Gibbon) from the end of the 1st century AD to the 15th. Gibbon is a modern historian. He is shrewdly selective of his sources, judiciously reserved, and coldly analytical. He differentiates between proximate and ultimate causes. He has a humanistic but impartial point of view. At the same time, he is an 18th century Englishman. While this is reflected in some of his opinions, such as that the extinction of republican freedom was what determined Rome's decline, it makes them no less valid and often the more interesting; it is hard to imagine anyone today being able to treat the early Christian controversies with the same tact and humour, for example.
And Edward Gibbon wrote like an enchanter. I read somewhere that his style was an inspiration to Churchill. No wonder. Every line of this tome of perhaps a million words is a delight to read. You will laugh out loud. His thought is clear and convincing. And there are simply magical moments, such as when he produces that mythical animal that appeared in the Roman circus, an animal no one in Europe has seen since then... a giraffe. Or the dissertation on whether Europe remains at threat of invasion from the Mongols.
The Decline and Fall is full of telling anecdotes, and yet it always holds to a general picture. It is filled with detail and colour but never loses the reader. It is packed with events, and it offers discussion of longer trends - notably those that participated in Rome's decline and led to its eventual fall - political, religious, military, economic. And it is even more impressive when one thinks of the modern tools its author did not have at his disposal, in particular archaeological and numismatic. Approximately half of the book is dedicated to the Roman Empire proper, up to the late 5th century. This is where Gibbon is at his strongest, his research the most thorough. The rest deals with Byzantium, touching heavily on European history up to the fall of Constantinople, and has a broader sweep. His work ends with a description of Rome as it looks today (i.e. in the late 18th century).
I finished reading my copy (after several happy months) in Rome itself, in a little place with a view of the Pantheon. If you have the luck of being able to do that, you will never forget it. |
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