El mismo estilo que el volumen I, un lenguaje magnifico que te mantiene pasando hojas y hojas.
Los capitulos que me parecieron pesados son los relacionados con la cristiandad. Creo que lo podria haber resumido bastante.
Y en cierta forma la guerra en Italia de Belisarious. Muy interesante pero creo que se alargo demasiado.

Por lo demas, maravilloso.
En este libro finalmente Roma cae, pero ah! Es solo el imperio del Oeste, aun queda el imperio del Este! El ultimo capitulo que realmente deberia ser el primero del siguiente libro explica rapidamente la vida de todos los emperadores hasta el final del imperio del Este.
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Ah, the paradoxes of contemporary publishing: Gibbon is generally divided into three books, with two 'volumes' per book; here we have volumes three and four. That makes perfectly good sense, on the one hand, since six books would be very expensive and two books would each be unwieldy. However, due to that publishing decision, this book is broken backed: it combines the last volume of the first series. Volume three ends with Gibbon's 'General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West,' volume four starts with a new preface.

Well, never mind. In volume three, Gibbon winds together the expansion of Christianity and the 'collapse' of the Western empire, with some glorious little moments, including the famous Byzantine mechanics and slaves who are all profound theologians (23), or the advice St Jerome gave to preachers, chilling for an optimist like Gibbon, but surely music to a modernist's ears, "Lachrymae auditorum laudes tuae sint," 31; or the advice of Ambrose to Theodosius that "private contrition was not sufficient to atone for a public fault," 59, a lesson our politicians still prefer to ignore.

His depiction of the gothic kings makes it very clear that there was little difference, if any, between the rule of a 'Roman' in the West and the rule of an Alaric, Clovis, or Theodoric, which forced me, at least, to wonder what exactly was supposed to have fallen; moreover, Gibbon's evident wish to make Christianity the cause of Roman decline, like Nietzsche avant la lettre ("all the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks," he says, without ever asking why so many people wanted to become monks, 429) comes ever more unstuck: his evidence clearly shows that the West 'fell' due to a build up of militarized populations pushed West across the steppe (e.g., 294). But again, did it fall? Gibbon seems to believe not, since "every age of the world has increased, and still increases, the real wealth, the happiness, the knowledge, and perhaps the virtue, of the human race," (516). Though of course, that might be irony.

In volume three, he's at his best when his reason and evidence breaks through his assumptions and biases, as for instance when he points out that the horrors of trial by fire, for instance, were a reasonable reaction against the willingness of people to perjure themselves: if you can't trust human witnesses, what are you to do? (477); or when he realizes that "the foundation of Constantinople more essentially contributed to the preservation of the East, than to the ruin of the West," (510); or that Christianity made European life possible, rather than destroying its first flowering (511). In volume four, however, the material itself takes over. There are just too many great stories: the life and work of Boethius, the factions of the Byzantine circus, the life of Belarasius.

It should be noted, though, that the chapters on Justinian's jurisprudence and the formation of Orthodoxy come as a relief--which, given how dry they are, is a good indication that Belasarius gets far too many pages. Military history is fine; minute descriptions of battles, on the other hand, are unreliable and boring. But his account of the many councils that gave us what most of the world knows as Christianity is wonderful--full of social and political detail that's usually ignored; I had no idea there was quite so much violence around them.

Unfortunately, throughout these volumes, Gibbon also insists on assuming that the Western writers were correct in their understanding of the effeminacy, corruption, servility etc etc of the Eastern Romans. This realm was "in a state of premature and perpetual decay," 237, the people "equally incapable of guarding their lives and fortunes against the assault of the Barbarians, or of defending their reason from the terrors of superstition," yet, nonetheless, they managed to survive for another thousand years in the face of, among other things that he details in volume four, the Persian, Avar, and Turkish invaders. Despite his best efforts to slander them, the Byzantines have the best generals, and the most interesting women (e.g., Eudocia); their architecture and art is glorious (although Gibbon pretends to believe that Hagia Sophia is dull and insignificant when compared to "the formation of the vilest insect that crawls upon the surface of the temple," (598), the sort of idiocy you might expect from Richard Dawkins, but not Mr. Gibbon).

And then, just when you're about to roll your eyes and reach for your facebook feed, you get things like this:

"The perfect equality of men is the point in which the extremes of democracy and despotism are confounded; since the majesty of the prince of people would be offended, in any heads were exalted above the level of their fellow-slaves or fellow-citizens," (806),

or,

"A wild democracy, superior to the forms, too often disdains the essential principles, of justice: the pride of despotism is envenomed by plebeian envy, and the heroes of Athens might sometimes applaud the happiness of the Persian, whose fate depended on the caprice of a single tyrant," 840,

or,

"In the progress from primitive equity to final injustice, the steps are silent, the shades are almost imperceptible, and the absolute monopoly is guarded by positive laws and artificial reason," (820), though he neglects to mention that the steps are generally over the bodies of the poor.

And at those moments this reader thinks: bring on Islam and the fall of the East. ( )

Great second volume of Gibbon's The Decline and Fall. I was amazed that he could carry the subject so far without sacrificing style, completeness or depth of subject.

Beware it is a long read. ( )

Chapter XXVII: Mostly about Theodosius
Chapter XXVIII: The Destruction of Paganism, and Worship of Relics and Saints by Christians
Chapter XXIX: The Sons of Theodosius; also Rufinus and Stilicho
Chapter XXX: The Goths are coming
Chapter XXXI: The Sack of Rome
Chapter XXXII: Arcadius, St John Chrysostom, and Theodosius II
Chapter XXXIII: The Vandals conquer Africa
Chapter XXXIV: Attila the Hun
Chapter XXXV: The End of Attila
Chapter XXXVI: The End of the Western Empire
Chapter XXXVII: Monks and Arians
Chapter XXXVIII: France, Spain and Britain
General Observations On The Fall Of The Roman Empire In The West

Chapter XXXIX: Theodoric and Boethius
Chapter XL: Justinian, Part I
Chapter XLI: Justinian, Part II
Chapter XLII: Justinian, Part III
Chapter XLIII: Justinian, Part IV
Chapter XLIV: Justinian, Part V - his legal legacy
Chapter XLV: After Justinian's death: The Lombards and Italy
Chapter XLVI: The Persians, the Avars and Heraclius
Chapter XLVII: Christianity in the East ( )