DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE - Edward Gibbon

ꕤ Decline and Fall ROMAN EMPIRE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE Edward Gibbon, Esq. With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman Vol. 1 1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised) http://www.gutenberg.org/files/731/731-h/731-h.htm Summary & Extracts Wikipedia Entries - Edward Gibbon (author) Edward Gibbon 1737 – 1794 English historian and Member of Parliament The Decline and Fall known for quality and irony of its prose use of primary sources open criticism of organised religion Unusually for 18th century: Gibbon not content with second-hand accounts when the primary sources were accessible  But:  most of these were drawn from well-known printed editions ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Grandfather, also named Edward lost all of his assets result of the South Sea Bubble stock market collapse in 1720 ... but regained much of his wealth in time ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Maternal neglect ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Westminster School https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westminster_School {  Royal College of St Peter in Westminster  } boarder independent school within precincts of Westminster Abbey earliest recorded evidence of the school dates from 1371 in Westminster Abbey's muniments  {land titles records} buildings now used date back to 11th century originally part of the Anglo-Saxon Abbey at Westminster 1540 Henry VIII ordered the dissolution of the monasteries in England personally ensured the School's survival by royal charter  College of St. Peter carried on with forty "King's Scholars" financed from the royal purse available to members of the public from across the country, so long as they could pay their own costs, rather than private tuition provided to the nobility Mary I's brief reign Abbey was reinstated as a Roman Catholic monastery but the school continued Elizabeth I re-founded the School in 1560 1560 is now gen. taken as date school was "founded" Located primarily in the precincts of former medieval monastery of Westminster Abbey Also at school site: Church House HQ of the Church of England Rooftop Ornament: The phoenix which was placed on the roof of school in the 1950s to commemorate the school's resurgence after World War II. [comment:  phoenix looks a lot like a peacock to me.  must be a Persian thing -- ie the mythical bird and the Yezidis peacock] highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rates of any secondary school or college in the world ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Further education: Magdalen College, Oxford enrolled as a gentleman-commoner Expelled from Oxford for religious subversion [ here ] [Dodgy Wikipedia can't even publish the truth of a dead author's bio.  Got the 'expelled' from Oxford from alternate source.]  ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- 1753 conversion to Roman Catholicism at Oxford Sent to Switzerland [on expulsion from Oxford] ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Switzerland reconversion to Protestantism father threatened to disinherit him, Christmas Day 1754, re:   reconversion to Protestantism ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- influence of deist or rationalist theologian Conyers Middleton denied Gibbon's claim to having been converted by a reading of Middleton is very unlikely It is claimed: Gibbon fabricated Middleton story retrospectively in his anxiety about the impact of the French Revolution and Edmund Burke's claim that it was provoked by the French philosophes, so influential on Gibbon. further "corrupted" by the 'free thinking' deism: playwright/poet couple David and Lucy Mallet ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- 1759 - 1770 served on active duty & reserve South Hampshire militia 1762 deactivation coinciding with the militia's dispersal end of Seven Years' War *must have remained a reservist given 1770 date?  ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Father died 1770 ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- 1763 - Grand Tour Grand Tour (of continental Europe) included a visit to Rome Claimed he: first conceived the idea of composing a history Rome later extended to the entire empire incident known as:  the "Capitoline vision" "It was at Rome, on the fifteenth of October 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefooted fryars were singing Vespers in the temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the City first started to my mind."  [Edward Gibbon] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography disputes this as: "creation of memory" or a "literary invention"  given that Gibbon journal is undated ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- "Ruins of the Forum looking towards the Capitol, 1742, by Carnaletto" image source | roberthorvath30.wordpress.com see also ‘Capitoline Vision’ of Edward Gibbon https://roberthorvat30.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/the-capitoline-vision-of-edward-gibbon-on-this-day-in-history/ ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Other US Mercantile Empire Modelled on Roman Empire US Mimicry [image source:  wikipedia  - public domain] "Capitol"  Latin   associated with Roman temple to Jupiter Optimus Maximus on Capitoline Hill USA established upon ratification United States Constitution formally began:  Mar. 1789 New York remained home to Congress 1790 - Residence Act passed to pave the way for a permanent capital Philadelphia was chosen as a temporary capital  for ten years (to Dec. 1800) until capital in Washington, D.C. would be ready US Capitol aka called Capitol Hill in  Washington, D.C. is the seat of the US Congress, the legislative branch of the US federal govt original building was completed in the year 1800 subsequently expanded distinctive neoclassical style and has a white exterior War of 1812 Capitol was partially burned by the British - 1814 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Capitol ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- 1774  initiated a freemason of the Premier Grand Lodge of England ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Became the archetypal back-bencher benignly "mute" and "indifferent" support of the Whig ministry invariably automatic ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Decline & Fall well received by public Rapid & lasting fame ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Medical extreme case:  scrotal swelling, prob. hydrocele testis chronic inflammation numerous procedures last of series, caused unremitting peritonitis (inflammation of membrane that lines abdominal cavity) inflammation set in and spread caused death ---------------------- ꕤ ----------------------  Death "English giant of the Enlightenment" died:  12:45 pm, 16 January 1794 - age 56 ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Decline & Fall criticised for scathing view of Christianity chapters XV and XVI. ... resulted in the banning of the book in several countries ... alleged crime was disrespecting ... character of sacred Christian doctrine, by: "treat[ing] the Christian church as a phenomenon of general history, not a special case admitting supernatural explanations and disallowing criticism of its adherents" ... the chapters excoriated the church for: "supplanting in an unnecessarily destructive way the great culture that preceded it" and for "the outrage of [practising] religious intolerance and warfare" ... assumed to be entirely anti-religion ... was supportive of religion to extent that work/history Decline and Fall was not influenced and swayed by official church doctrine ... Christianity chapters are heavily ironical & cutting about religion ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Gibbon verdict on the history of the Middle Ages: "I have described the triumph of barbarism and religion." But: ... politically, he aligned himself with the conservative Edmund Burke's rejection of the democratic movements of the time as well as with Burke's dismissal of the "rights of man." Winston Churchill "I set out upon ... Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [and] was immediately dominated both by the story and the style. ... I devoured Gibbon. I rode triumphantly through it from end to end and enjoyed it all." Modelled his writings on that of Edward Gibbon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT Glad I looked up Edward Gibbon. His history is a history of place and time, and it touches on significant movements of the period -- which contrast with the Dark Ages that followed the Fall of Rome and are relevant to religion etc. Churchill "Democracy is not some harlot in the street," he said in condemning the Greek Communists toward the end of World War II, "to be picked up by some man with a Tommy gun. Democracy is based on reason, a sense of fair play, and freedom and a respect for the rights of other people." [here] On the contrary, both Democracy & Religion are the harlots of the beneficiaries of wealth and privilege and are both probably the 'opium of the people' in a sense  ... in terms of conditions that involve illusion, at least. 1931 Paris - Opium Den Skimming the editor's and author's introductions and noting how Decline and Fall was banned in several countries, as it did not preserve the special protections this harlot of privilege and power enjoyed, filled me with disgust. Very interested in the Fall of the Roman empire, because I see what appears, to me, to be the fall of Europe right now. Not sure how I'll go with reading Decline and Fall seated at a desktop.  It will take me forever. Drawn to the chapters on Christianity.  Do not understand why the beliefs of a break-away religious sect/cult from the Middle East were adopted by Europe:  why this was adopted over one's own traditions.   The worship of a foreign mortal and the blend of foreign religion with pagan religion that resulted is intriguing -- as is the role that religion may have played in the decline of the Roman Empire. Even today, religions receive special protections.  I don't think that should be the case at all.  Organised religion deserves no special regard. It is organised fraud perpetuated perpetrated for political ends, and this organisation is an expression of a host of other things that are tied to personal and group identity, psychology and so much more. Works of Karl Marx 1843 A Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right Introduction https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1843/critique-hpr/intro.htm What Carl has to say looks interesting. Might check this out before I launch into the Gibbon's chapters on Christianity. PS Struggling reading what Marx has to say.  Sounds like he's opposed to the old order of the German empire.  Struggling with it because each sentence seems to be packed with so much weight.  The manner of presenting unfamiliar ideas is also hard to follow.  But I guess the more you know the easier that becomes to understand?  lol Might set Marx aside and pop over to visit Christianity destroying the Roman empire.  lol * Even though this book would be outdated, I think it will be an interesting read.  ꕤ