“Have you ever read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? If so, do you think it would be a good book for our older home schooled children?”
I have read it and it’s good, but not pithy in most places. I took it with me when I was deployed with DoD to an office job somewhere that I won’t mention. Suffice it to say, I had little else to do off duty, so it was great. Maybe not great reading at any other time for a modern reader, however educational.
People had more time to read when Gibbon was writing. A lot of late 18th Century and 19th Century writing was and is great, but moderns won’t sit still for it. For example, Sir Walter Scott wrote some great books that no one will touch today.
I would suggest taking a look at Plutarch. You can find various translations and collections of his lives of the ancient Greeks and Romans, but they are short enough and have a clear moral in them that they may be better suited for middle school and high school ages. My grand parents read them in high school, one read them in Latin in school, but I think English is good enough.
Thank you, I want my children to have a well rounded, but sound, classical education. That’s one of the many reasons we home school.