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Is Gibbon’s “The Decline & Fall of the Roman Empire” Still Relevant?
The collector ^ | 21st July 2025 | Jessica Suess

Posted on 07/23/2025 3:13:24 AM PDT by Cronos

...Gibbon’s Causes: Decline and Fall of Rome

First, there are the external threats

Gibbon believes that even more damaging were the internal threats that existed within Roman society and administration. In Gibbon’s view, these causes are all interconnected and grow off one another. They start with the fall of the Antonines, when imperial power became dependent on military support over constitutional appointment. This made the army kingmakers with the power to extort the empire’s leadership. This resulted in repeated civil wars as generals vied for power with the support of their men, resulting in significant instability.

Alongside this, Gibbon points to a general moral decline in Roman society,

Finally, Gibbon points to the adoption of Christianity, which Gibbon also suggests pacified the warlike Romans. He says that the best men who had previously led Rome’s armies now populated Rome’s monasteries, from where they preached a pacifist lifestyle but also fought among themselves about the minutiae of religious doctrine, resulting in more internal division.

..Is Gibbon Still Valuable Today?

do modern scholars agree with Gibbon’s assessment? Yes and no.

Scholars disagree with Gibbon’s assessment of the culpability of Christianity. Anyone who knows their history would question calling Christian societies pacifist, and the same religious debates and cultural changes were active in the Eastern Empire and did not lead to collapse. Therefore, while modern scholars agree that Christianity certainly had a profound impact on Roman life, they argue that Gibbon overemphasizes its role in the decline and fall of Rome.

when interpreting Gibbon, we need to remember what he lacks, such as archaeological evidence, and remember the paradigms that influenced his interpretation, in particular, the rejection of Church authority and the philosophy of the Enlightenment.

(Excerpt) Read more at thecollector.com ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: edwardgibbon; gibbon; romanempire; rome
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"The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity; the active virtues of society were discouraged; and the last remains of military spirit were buried in the cloister. A large portion of public and private wealth was consecrated to the specious demands of charity and devotion, and the soldiers’ pay was lavished on the useless multitudes of both sexes who could only plead the merits of abstinence and chastity. Faith, zeal, curiosity, and more earthly passions of malice and ambition kindled the flame of theological factions, whose conflicts were sometimes bloody and always implacable; the attention of the emperors was diverted from camps to synods; the Roman world was oppressed by a new species of tyranny, and the persecuted sects became the secret enemies of the country.”",

I consider Gibbons conclusions as actually detrimental to both the study of the Roman Empire and to the west I'm general as this above extract is used by numerous Mohammedans to criticize Christianity

1 posted on 07/23/2025 3:13:24 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

bkmk


2 posted on 07/23/2025 3:21:23 AM PDT by linMcHlp
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To: Cronos

Gibbon’s work is colored by an Enlightenment-era skepticism toward organized religion, particularly Catholicism, which he often portrays as superstitious, dogmatic, and detrimental to the Roman Empire’s stability:

Gibbon argues that Christianity undermined the Roman Empire by promoting pacifism, otherworldliness, and a rejection of civic virtues (e.g., Volume 1, Chapter 15). He suggests that the Church diverted resources and loyalty from the state to ecclesiastical concerns. This oversimplifies the complex socio-political factors of Rome’s decline—such as economic instability, barbarian invasions, and internal corruption—while scapegoating Christianity.

Historians, like Christopher Dawson (The Making of Europe), argue that the Church preserved Roman culture through its institutions, monasteries, and legal traditions, fostering continuity rather than collapse.

Gibbon romanticizes pagan Roman culture, implying that Christianity supplanted a vibrant religious system (Volume 1, Chapter 2). In reality, paganism was already declining due to internal inconsistencies and lack of institutional cohesion, as noted by scholars like Peter Brown (The World of Late Antiquity).

Gibbon’s deistic leanings lead him to view miracles and divine providence with skepticism, dismissing accounts in Christian sources like Eusebius or Lactantius as fabrications (Volume 1, Chapter 15). Catholic theology, rooted in the writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, holds that divine intervention is compatible with historical events. Gibbon’s rejection of the supernatural distorts his analysis of Christianity’s appeal and influence.

Gibbon’s focus on the Western Roman Empire’s fall overlooks the Eastern (Byzantine) Empire, where Christianity and imperial authority coexisted for centuries. This omission undermines his thesis, as the Eastern Church’s integration with the state, as described by scholars like John Meyendorff (Byzantine Theology), suggests Christianity was not inherently destructive to empire.


3 posted on 07/23/2025 3:39:33 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

Gibbons is pretty good at reconstructing the dynamics at work in the Roman Empire but some of his conclusions are a bit off.

Not sure that Christianity weakened the empire as much as he claims but it did add one further division into an already collapsing system and the pure Christianity of the time was badly at odds with the violence and warfare of the pagan world at the time.

Christianity prevailed, but at a high cost

Western Civilization was the end result of this process and it worked out pretty good until we destroyed it


4 posted on 07/23/2025 3:43:13 AM PDT by rdcbn1 (TV )
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To: Cronos

Gibbon covers 16 centuries of the empire’s history.

There’s a rather well-done overview of the multi-volume set online. The professor includes many photographs of ruins, artwork, maps, etc. to help set the scenes.

I binge-watched it one rainy weekend when Prime had it for free.

https://www.thegreatcoursesplus.com/books-that-matter-the-history-of-the-decline-and-fall-of-the-roman-empire


5 posted on 07/23/2025 3:48:31 AM PDT by P.O.E. (Pray for America.)
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To: Cronos

I have heard archeologists say that Gibbons is considered worthless as far as his conclusions but very valuable for his collection of historical references, which he ignored in drawing his conclusions.


6 posted on 07/23/2025 3:56:59 AM PDT by Varda
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To: Cronos
I think this Italian professor was more correct than homosexual Gibbon…

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8438210/Fall-of-Roman-Empire-caused-by-contagion-of-homosexuality.html
7 posted on 07/23/2025 4:02:14 AM PDT by Jan_Sobieski (Sanctification)
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To: Cronos

We have an ancestor mentioned during the crusades in the collection so I bought a set.


8 posted on 07/23/2025 4:02:45 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
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To: Cronos

I think it is still relevant, but not in every way as you rightly point out.

BTW, IIRC, Gibbons was a raging Tory and was not in any way friendly to the American Revolution, but I know he was a man of his time in England.

It is a useful book, though, but shouldn’t be swallowed wholly...anymore. It once was.


9 posted on 07/23/2025 4:11:15 AM PDT by rlmorel (Factio Communistica Sinensis Delenda Est.)
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To: Varda; All
It's an important literary and cultural benchmark if you want to comprehend history and the 'history of history'

To ask if it is relevant means you never read it

10 posted on 07/23/2025 4:16:57 AM PDT by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: SMARTY

I’ve read it and as I learnt more, have come to loathe it for giving wrong conclusions. Kinda like watching CNN that shows part of the truth and pushes the narrative in a completely wrong direction.


11 posted on 07/23/2025 4:21:32 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

It’s still essential reading, if only for its literary merit, which is unsurpassed.


12 posted on 07/23/2025 4:39:28 AM PDT by Romulus ( )
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To: Cronos
Right...but if you only read what supports your personal, 21st century view of things, then you miss out on a lot

The ‘Decline and Fall’ stands as a historical landmark, no matter what your individual perspective is. Also, he wrote it long before he had access to any of the archaeological documents that WE rely on in our educational process.

13 posted on 07/23/2025 4:44:15 AM PDT by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: SMARTY

You are right, I didn’t read it largely because I wasn’t interested in picking through propaganda. I can see why someone would be interested in the (British version of) “history of history” but I am more interested in the evidence of historical events.


14 posted on 07/23/2025 4:57:06 AM PDT by Varda
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To: SMARTY

Hmm.. well, yes, it was a magnum opus for the 18th century.

His gathering of facts for that time is impressive.

His conclusions where he colors the facts based on his personal bias is noticeable even for that time.


15 posted on 07/23/2025 5:04:14 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Cronos

Not sure who said every great library includes a full set of Gibbons - unread.

The people who cherry pick one of his descriptions and debate whether he was right or wrong are wasting our time.

Gibbons Decline is the greatest history and the greatest description of the human condition ever written.

It’s massive and covers approx. 1500 years of history. Therein he unleashes hundreds of truisms on behavior.

If he discussed religion as a contributing factor to the fall of Rome, he also discussed it softening the fall.

As for using him to defend Islam, that would be extremely difficult for anyone who reads the history of Islam in his massive work.

Decline is endlessly full of human and epic stories and you read and can’t imagine they haven’t been turned into great movies.


16 posted on 07/23/2025 5:04:48 AM PDT by Williams (Thank God for the election of President Trump!)
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To: Romulus

But many readers don’t bother to check up and walk away with his (incorrect) conclusions


17 posted on 07/23/2025 5:05:07 AM PDT by Cronos
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To: Varda
To some extent, all history is propaganda. "All history is a previously agreed upon set of lies." Napoleon I

But, history is written differently by different authors at different periods over time. You read it, if for no other reason than that it's interesting to learn how one age or one culture has seen and described the facts available to them, in THEIR lifetime.

I think that is what was meant by the person who said, 'If you didn't read 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', then you can't be regarded as an educated person'.

There are a great many books that are important to read, even though finally revealed facts prove that they are dated.

18 posted on 07/23/2025 5:12:06 AM PDT by SMARTY (In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. Napoleon Bonaparte I)
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To: Cronos

The EurAsian horse tribes are rarely mentioned in connection with the fall of both the Western Roman Empire, or the Eastern Roman Empire a thousand years later.
These horse tribes coming out of the Steppe had an enormous impact on all of Europe’s history, constantly pillaging Eastern and Central Europe, not unlike the rampages of the Vikings in the West a thousand years later.


19 posted on 07/23/2025 6:19:17 AM PDT by Thapsus_epiphany (Socialism is a prison, Communism is a death camp )
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To: Thapsus_epiphany

Anything by ZZ Topp is relevant!


20 posted on 07/23/2025 6:38:20 AM PDT by Ndorfin (Remember 1.5 billion can't win an election but 12 hackers on a modem in Russia can!)
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