Edward Gibbon and EmpireRosamond McKitterick, Roland Quinault This book, which celebrates the bicentenary of Edward Gibbon's death, examines Gibbon's interpretations of empire, and the intellectual context in which he formulated them, against a background of the eighteenth- and late twentieth-century knowledge of late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Gibbon's ideas of empire, his understanding of monarchy and the balance of power, his sources and working methods, the structure of the History of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, his attitude towards the barbarians, the contrasting treatments of the eastern and western Empires, his appreciation of past civilizations and their material remains, his audience and their reactions - contemporary and Victorian - to his text are considered in the light of the latest research on eighteenth-century intellectual history on the one hand and on late antiquity, Byzantium and the Middle Ages on the other. The book breaks new ground, in taking the form of a dialogue between experts on the fields about which Gibbon himself wrote and eigtheenth-century intellectual historians. |
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Ammianus Marcellinus ancient arts Augustan History Averil Cameron barbarian Bury's Byzantine Byzantium Cambridge chapter 38 classical contemporary context Craddock David Womersley Decline and fall decline of Rome distant revolutions Early Medieval edition of Decline Edward Gibbon eighteenth-century emperor Empire of Ammianus Ethnography and community Europe fourth century Frederic Harrison G. A. Bonnard G. W. Bowersock Ghosh Gibbon Commemoration Gibbon on civil Gibbon thought Gibbon wrote Gibbon's conception Gibboniana Goths Greek hedgehog Ian Wood Ibid important circumstances J. B. Bury James Howard-Johnston John Matthews Jonathan Shepard Journal judgment Justinian late antiquity later Roman Empire Latin Lausanne literary London Lord Sheffield luminous historian Magdalen College Memoirs military modern Momigliano narrative observations Odoacer passage philosophic political Positivist Procopius reign relevant ROLAND QUINAULT Roman Empire Roman world Rosamond McKitterick Royal Historical Society ruins scholarship secret poison series of causes Seven Sleepers Severus Studies Tacitus Theodosius University Vegetius vols western Empire wrote Gibbon