“...obscure Christian theological struggles and the resultant wars was pretty tough.”
THAT was the worst part I think. Everything else was pretty interesting.
It was THE piece of historical scholarship when it was written.
Up to that time, information about that period, though available, was scattered far and wide and mostly had to be translated.
Putting it all together with such insight and academic rigor was an accomplishment.
Here’s an interesting anecdote about Gibbon.
On one occasion during the American Revolutionary War he rejected an invitation to meet with Benjamin Franklin, replying with a card saying that though he respected the American envoy as a man and a philosopher, he could not reconcile it with his duty to his king to have any conversation was a “revolted” subject. Franklin replied that he had such high regard for the historian that if ever Gibbon should consider the decline and fall of the British Empire as a subject, Franklin would be happy to furnish him with some relevant materials!