I'm only on the second book of this series, but I think I've read enough to mention a point of caution to prospective buyers. Like all classics, "The Decline and Fall" is available in an untold number of editions and I would simply advise against buying the boxed set from Everyman's Library.

I'm going to confess that I bought this particular edition because it looked academic and gave me a warm smug feeling. Just open that plain green hardcover with golden lettering and thread bookmark, and try NOT feeling intelligent. Unfortunately there should be some sort of warning against purchasing books based solely on their external aesthetics...

Before I dive into a rather dull tirade (see below: many paragraphs) I want to say that the edition's only truly damning shortcoming is its complete lack of translations. Gibbon, not counting on the sharp decline in Latin awareness, frequently cites original Roman sources using original Roman words and phrases.

Now while it might amuse a scholar or professor to read these excerpts in their unadulterated purity, an amateur like me is left completely in the dark. As a low estimate, I would say that I'm forced to ignore entirely about one fourth of Gibbon's footnotes - and that's not counting what I skip from laziness.


The Everyman's Library set is obviously not for your average reader, but the publisher should at least have updated its review of Gibbon's work. These books still use the editors notes from the 1910 edition, which add almost nothing illuminating or interesting, yet still manage to distract the reader from the narrative.

This 'modern' editor manages to correct Gibbon on some minor, rather forgettable details, but fails to offer any new perspectives that would enlarge our understanding. Very frequently in fact, he seems to snivel over some negligent point of opinion, particularly when it comes to the sanctity of early christianity.

I would not much mind these defensive commentaries, were it not such an obvious sore point with Sir Oliphant ( the editor. ) Gibbon's severity is well known, and I fully expected a few words of balance to be included in any modern reading, but Smeaton's pedantic invectives are simply tiring.

To wit: "Divest this whole passage of the latent sarcasm betrayed by the subsequent tone of the whole disquisition, and it might commence a Christian history..."

Yes, the editor has surely convinced me that he knows many words.

A variety of other trifles give Oliphant the opportunity to exercise his tone of persnickety condescension. Corrections are fine, but we don't need to hear a paragraph of disquisition on why this or that term has been 'confounded' by Gibbon.

More than anything though, I'm worried about the corrections themselves being outdated. If Smeaton and Gibbon are in disagreement, I really wonder if an entire century of archeology hasn't already settled the argument more firmly. It kind of makes all those trifling notes feel that much more pointless.


Just to really complain now, I'd like to add that I can't open the book wide enough to see the middle of the maps, and I really wish there were more modern appendices - Just give us something more for the sixty dollars we spend.

So in conclusion, box set bad. Pretty; but bad. If you're going to buy a heavy read like this, take awhile to browse the additional material and make sure you're satisfied with it. ( )

Volume 1: Traces the history of the Roman Empire from the reign of Caesar Augustus to Constantine . Fairly easy to read, language a.little difficult having been written in the eighteenth century. The section at the end about the history of the early church is fascinating.

Volume 2: History of the church till Constantine, and the reign of him and his sons and predecessors and finishes with Valentinian. Hard to argue with a classic. Not for the faint of heart though with six volumes.
Volume 3: Continues the series from the invasion of the Goths and then the Huns to the fall of the Western Empire and with it the fall of Rome. Immense in its scope but still manages to bring the minutaie of the events of those times. ( )

The best history book I have ever read. I was amazed by how much I knew about Rome was based on what Gibbon wrote over two hundred years ago. On top of that the writing is wonderful. Not a page goes by without at least one sentence worthy of being quoted. Definitely a book that I will read again. And again. ( )

This account of the Roman Empire was in its time a landmark in classical and historiographical scholarship and remains a powerful contribution to the interpretation of Roman history.