The English historian Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon
Edward Gibbon FRS was an English historian, writer and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788 and is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of prima…
What did Edward Gibbon contribute?
Edward Gibbon, (born May 8 [April 27, Old Style], 1737, Putney, Surrey, England—died January 16, 1794, London), English rationalist historian and scholar best known as the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88), a continuous narrative from the 2nd century ce to the fall of ...
Was Edward Gibbon a good historian?
Edward Gibbon is one of the most important historians of all time. His commitment to primary source analysis changed the field of history forever. Moreover, his explanation of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, as well as his negative view of the Middle Ages, continues to shape modern opinion today.
What is Gibbons theory?
According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. He began an ongoing controversy about the role of Christianity, but he gave great weight to other causes of internal decline and to attacks from outside the Empire.
When did Gibbon write Fall of Roman Empire?
1776After 20 years of work, Edward Gibbon finally completed his history of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire in 1776.
Are gibbons friendly?
The gibbons are also very gentle and will hold your hand - Picture of Monkey Park, Tenerife.
Who wrote about the fall of Rome?
Edward GibbonThe Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in full The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, historical work by Edward Gibbon, published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788.
What did Gibbon say about Christianity?
He argued in at least two sections of his book that early Christianity was more intolerant than the paganism that preceded it, and that Christianity wasted resources on piety that could have been better used for other, more practical purposes.
Who write the history?
For a long time, the people who wrote history were mostly educated men: from the “father of history”, the ancient Greek Herodotus who lived over 2000 years ago, to medieval monks such as the Englishman Bede, and 20th-century university professors like Eric Hobsbawm.
How did Rome fall?
Invasions by Barbarian tribes The most straightforward theory for Western Rome's collapse pins the fall on a string of military losses sustained against outside forces. Rome had tangled with Germanic tribes for centuries, but by the 300s “barbarian” groups like the Goths had encroached beyond the Empire's borders.
Is the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire a good read?
Edward Gibbon's six-volume History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776-88) is among the most magnificent and ambitious narratives in European literature.
What broke the Roman Empire?
The West was severely shaken in 410, when the city of Rome was sacked by the Visigoths, a wandering nation of Germanic peoples from the northeast. The fall of Rome was completed in 476, when the German chieftain Odoacer deposed the last Roman emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus.
Who defeated Rome?
Barbarian kingdoms had established their own power in much of the area of the Western Empire. In 476, the Germanic barbarian king Odoacer deposed the last emperor of the Western Roman Empire in Italy, Romulus Augustulus, and the Senate sent the imperial insignia to the Eastern Roman Emperor Flavius Zeno.
Was Edward Gibbon an enlightenment?
Gibbon is widely regarded as a typical man of the Enlightenment, dedicated to asserting the claims of reason over superstition, to understanding history as a rational process, and to replacing divine revelation with sociological explanations for the rise of religion.
Are gibbons aggressive?
They are very aggressive when it comes to defending their territory and their groups. They can be very vocal and heard for long distances. Fights can occur between pairs but usually it is between the males.
Where is Edward Gibbon buried?
Buried in the Wakefield Family Grave in Bolton Street Cemetery, Wellington are: Edward Gibbon Wakefield, his brothers William and Daniel Wakefield, and Daniel's daughter, Selina Elizabeth Wakefield.
Are gibbons extinct?
Not extinctGibbon / Extinction status
Who is Edward Gibbon?
Edward Gibbon, (born May 8 [April 27, Old Style], 1737, Putney, Surrey, England—died January 16, 1794, London), English rationalist historian and scholar best known as the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776–88), a continuous narrative from the 2nd century ce to the fall ...
What was the keynote of Gibbon's early years of study?
The keynote of these early years of study was self-sufficiency. Apart from his aunt’s initial guidance, Gibbon followed his intellectual bent in solitary independence.
What happened to Gibbon's father?
His father died intestate in 1770. After two years of tiresome business, Gibbon was established in Bentinck Street, London, and concentrated on his Roman history. At the same time he entered fully into social life. He joined the fashionable clubs and was also becoming known among men of letters. In 1775 he was elected to the Club, the brilliant circle that the painter Sir Joshua Reynolds had formed round the writer and lexicographer Dr. Samuel Johnson. Although Johnson’s biographer, James Boswell, openly detested Gibbon, and it may be inferred that Johnson disliked him, Gibbon took an active part in the Club and became intimate with Reynolds and the actor David Garrick. In the previous year he had entered Parliament and was an assiduous, though silent, supporter of Lord North.
What was Gibbon's intellectual bent?
Apart from his aunt’s initial guidance, Gibbon followed his intellectual bent in solitary independence. This characteristic remained with him throughout his life. His great work was composed without consulting other scholars and is impressed with the seal of his unique personality.
How many children did Edward Gibbon have?
Edward, too, had independent means throughout his life. He was the eldest and the only survivor of seven children, the rest dying in infancy. Gibbon’s own childhood was a series of illnesses and more than once he nearly died.
What was Gibbon's childhood like?
Gibbon’s own childhood was a series of illnesses and more than once he nearly died. Neglected by his mother, he owed his life to her sister, Catherine Porten, whom he also called “the mother of his mind,” and after his mother’s death in 1747 he was almost entirely in his aunt’s care. He early became an omnivorous reader and could indulge his tastes the more fully since his schooling was most irregular. He attended a day school in Putney and, in 1746, Kingston grammar school, where he was to note in his Memoirs “at the expense of many tears and some blood, [he] purchased a knowledge of Latin syntax.” In 1749 he was admitted to Westminster School. He was taken in 1750 to Bath and Winchester in search of health and after an unsuccessful attempt to return to Westminster was placed for the next two years with tutors from whom he learned little. His father took him on visits to country houses where he had the run of libraries filled with old folios.
Where did Gibbon spend his time?
Gibbon left England on January 25, 1763, and spent some time in Paris, making the acquaintance of several Philosophes, Denis Diderot and Jean Le Rond d’Alembert among others. During the autumn and winter spent in study and gaiety at Lausanne, he gained a valuable friend in John Baker Holroyd (later Lord Sheffield), who was to become his literary executor. In 1764 Gibbon went to Rome, where he made an exhaustive study of the antiquities and, on October 15, 1764, while musing amid the ruins of the Capitol, was inspired to write of the decline and fall of the city. Some time was yet to pass before he decided on the history of the empire.
How did Gibbon impose a further unity on his narrative?
Gibbon imposed a further unity on his narrative by viewing it as an undeviating decline from those ideals of political and, even more, intellectual freedom that he had found in classical literature. The material decay that had inspired him in Rome was the effect and symbol of moral decadence.
What is the purpose of Gibbon's work?
The vindication of intellectual freedom is a large part of Gibbon’s purpose as a historian. When toward the end of his work he remarks, “I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion,” he reveals epigrammatically his view of the causes of the decay of the Greco-Roman world. They can hardly be disputed.
What is Gibbon's best known treatment of Christianity?
Although Gibbon’s best known treatment of Christianity is found mainly in the 15th and 16th chapters, no less significant are later chapters in which he traced the developments of theology and ecclesiasticism in relation to the breakup of the empire. Gibbon went on to prepare the next volumes.
Why is Gibbon behind date?
That Gibbon is behind date in many details and in some departments of importance, simply signifies that we and our fathers have not lived in an absolutely incompetent world. But in the main things he is still our master above and beyond “date.”
What was Gibbon's reaction to Christianity?
Reactions to Gibbon’s treatment of Christianity have displayed various phases. Both in his lifetime and after, he was attacked and personally ridiculed by those who feared that his skepticism would shake the existing establishment. In the 19th century he was hailed as a champion by militant agnostics.
When did Deyverdun write his last line?
There he quietly completed his history in three more volumes, writing the last lines of it on June 27, 1787.
Where was Lord Sheffield's body found?
James’s Street, London. His remains were placed in Lord Sheffield’s family vault in Fletching Church, Sussex.
Why did Rome fall according to Gibbon?
Another reason why Rome fell according to Gibbon is because the decline of Christianity and the collective defilement of moral principles. The fall of Rome coincided with the rise of Christianity under Emperor Constantine's Edict of Milan which legalized Christianity in 313, and in 380 Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. Nevertheless, Christianity replaced the polytheistic Roman religion with monotheism and exchanged the pomposity of emperors for the pomposity of popes, thus entrenching a bureaucratic hierarchy of clergy who over the centuries became excessively rich on the alms of the poor and in many respects eventually became more decadent and corrupt as the Roman Emperors who were replaced by the Catholic Church. Gibbon was famously anti-organized religion, but not anti-Christian therefore in chapter three of Gibbon's History he wrote, "The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind; but so intimate is the connection between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people."
Is history more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortune of mankind?
History...is, indeed, little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortune of mankind.
Who was the Roman historian who influenced the writing of Gibbon?
Suzanne Curchot-Necker, who long continued as a friend of, and correspondent with, Gibbon, and who was herself familiar with many of the classics, expressed the opinion that the Roman historian Tacitus was the "model and perhaps the source" of much that went into Gibbon's masterwork.
Where was Edward Gibbon born?
Edward Gibbon was born in Putney, (now part of London), in 1737 as the first child of Edward Gibbon, a Member of Parliament, and his wife. Seven children in all were born into the family and young Edward Gibbon, although a notably sickly child, was luckier than his siblings in that he was the only one to survive childhood.
What did Gibbon do in 1754?
During these years Gibbon studied Greek, Latin, Logic, and Mathematics; he met Voltaire in 1757 and in that same year fell in love with Suzanne Curchot, a daughter of a materially poor minister of religion.
Why did Edward Gibbon not go to school?
Due to his poor health Gibbon had almost no formal schooling. Following his mother's death in 1747 his father chose to live a retired life in Hampshire leaving young Edward Gibbon to the care of an aunt and grandfather in Putney.
What religion did Gibbon adopt?
Whilst at Oxford Gibbon incurred his father's displeasure in June 1753 by adopting Roman Catholicism, (such conversion also, in those times, automatically disbarred him from further attendance at Oxford University!), with the result that Gibbon was sent to Lausanne where he was to stay in the home of a Calvinist minister.
What did Gibbon senior intend to do?
Gibbon senior intended that, through this arrangement, his son would come to abjure his recent conversion in faith.
When was the essay on the study of literature published?
Following this return to England Gibbon was introduced to a literary circle supported by Lady Hervey and, in 1761, published an essay entitled Essai sur l'étude de la littérature that he had begun in Lausanne in 1758. His father had encouraged this publication hoping that it would bring Gibbon to public notice but it seemed to have more impact in continental circles than in England - it was not translated into English until 1764 when it appeared as an "Essay on the Study of Literature."
What was the name of the book that Gibbon defended?
In response, Gibbon defended his work with the 1779 publication of A Vindication ... of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. His remarks on Christianity aroused particularly vigorous attacks, but in the mid-twentieth century, at least one author claimed that "church historians allow the substantial justness of [Gibbon's] main positions."
What was Gibbon accused of?
Gibbon has been accused of antisemitism. He has described the Jews as "a race of fanatics, whose dire and credulous superstition seemed to render them the implacable enemies not only of the Roman government, but also of humankind."
How did Gibbon challenge the Church?
Gibbon challenged Church history by estimating far smaller numbers of Christian martyrs than had been traditionally accepted. The Church's version of its early history had rarely been questioned before. Gibbon, however, knew that modern Church writings were secondary sources, and he shunned them in favor of primary sources.
Why was Gibbon attacked?
The first two volumes were well-received and widely praised, but with the publication of volume 3, Gibbon was attacked by some as a " paganist " because he argued that Christianity (or at least the abuse of it by some of the clergy and its followers) had hastened the fall of the Roman Empire, as seen in this extended quote from chapter 38, part VI of Volume 3:
What chapter is Gibbon's "The Fall of the Roman Empire"?
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 38 "General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West". Like other Enlightenment thinkers and British citizens of the age steeped in institutional anti-Catholicism, Gibbon held in contempt the Middle Ages as a priest-ridden, superstitious Dark Age.
Why did the Roman Empire succumb to barbarian invasions?
According to Gibbon, the Roman Empire succumbed to barbarian invasions in large part due to the gradual loss of civic virtue among its citizens. He began an ongoing controversy about the role of Christianity, but he gave great weight to other causes of internal decline and to attacks from outside the Empire.
When did Iggy Pop write Caesar Lives?
In 1995, an established journal of classical scholarship, Classics Ireland, published punk musician's Iggy Pop 's reflections on the applicability of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to the modern world in a short article, Caesar Lives, (vol. 2, 1995 ) in which he noted. America is Rome.
When did Gibbon write his memoirs?
Gibbon wrote a short account of his life in French in 1783. For five years he made no attempt to add to this, but in June 1788, one month after the last volumes of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire were published, he began work on the Memoirs by writing to the College of Arms for information about his ancestry.
What was the purpose of Gibbon's Memoirs?
These labours were diversified by his experiences as a Member of Parliament, and his writing, at the request of the Government, a "Mémoire justificatif" asserting the justice of British hostilities against France at the time of the American Revolutionary War. During the course of writing the Decline and Fall Gibbon moved back to Lausanne. Gibbon's Memoirs end with a survey of the factors he considered had combined to bring him a happy and productive life.
What is the significance of Gibbon's failure to reach a final recension of his autobiography?
It has been explained in various ways: as a sign of Gibbon's wrestling with difficulties of literary form; as a result of disagreements between Gibbon and Sheffield as to how far the Memoirs should follow Edmund Burke 's interpretation of the French Revolution; or in psychoanalytic terms as the reflection of an uncertainty in Gibbon's mind as to his own identity.
Why is Gibbon's Memoirs so high?
So high is the critical repute of Gibbon's Memoirs that The Cambridge History of English Literature declared it had "by general consent…established itself as one of the most fascinating books of its class in English literature". One reason for this is the candour and openness with which Gibbon speaks of himself.
What did Gibbon do in Switzerland?
Gibbon made good use of his time in Switzerland, meeting Voltaire and other literary figures, and perfecting his command of the French language. He also fell in love with a Swiss girl, Suzanne Curchod, but his wish to marry her was implacably opposed by his father. "I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son." On returning to England he published his first work, the Essai sur l'étude de la littérature (Essay on the study of literature). The next major event Gibbon mentions was his taking a commission in the Hampshire militia, an experience which he tells us was later to be of advantage to him:
What is Lord Sheffield's editing?
Lord Sheffield's editing has been praised for its ingenuity and taste , but blamed for its unscholarly aggressiveness. Since 1896 several other editions of the work have appeared, more in accordance with modern standards. Gibbon's Memoirs are considered one of the first autobiographies in the modern sense of the word, ...
Where did Gibbon move to in the decline and fall?
During the course of writing the Decline and Fall Gibbon moved back to Lausanne. Gibbon's Memoirs end with a survey of the factors he considered had combined to bring him a happy and productive life.
Edward Gibbon's Early Life
- Edward Gibbon was born into a successful family in the most successful country on Earth, England, in 1737. His grandfather was wealthy and his father did not have to work, being a member of Parliament instead. Yet his family did meet with tragedy, as he was the oldest of seven children, and the only one who lived past early childhood. As a child, Edward Gibbon had a rathe…
Edward Gibbon's Professional Life
- Edward Gibbon may not have had to work, but he was always motivated to write a historical study of enduring value. This made the early years of his professional life all the more frustrating. It took Gibbon quite some time to complete any historical study. However, he did serve for two years as a captain with the local militia, learning much about men, leadership, and military camps. This rec…
Edward Gibbon's Scholarly Work and Publications
- Edward Gibbon is best known for his history of Rome, but he was broadly interested in Western history and political institutions. As an Enlightenment rationalist, he was supportive of constitutions, the separation of powers, and the rule of law. His major publications were as follows: 1. Essai sur l'Étude de la Littérature 2. Critical Observations ...