Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #181463 in Books
• Published on: 1994-10-20
• Binding: Hardcover
• 1952 pages

Synopsis
This boxed set of Volumes 4-6 ("The Eastern Empire") completes the Everyman set. Volumes 1-3 ("The Western Empire") were published in 1993. Even after 200 years, Gibbon's book is still an authoritative work on Roman history.

Customer Reviews

A treasure of wisdom and foresight
After more than a year, I finally managed to read the final 3 volumes of the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. This is one of the few books that have really changed my views not just on the Roman Empire, but on human nature and everything really. It is such a convincing argument regarding how transient and delicate every human entreprise really is. I could not find any other book that was so useful to me to understand what is going on on today's world. We are also in the middle of a great transformation which might turn out for the worse regarding everything from the economy to the environment, and the cautionary tale of how the alliance of religious zeal and increased tyranny did the Romans weaker to withstand the push of the barbarians is fully aplicable to today. I enjoyed the rhythm of the prose, the wonderful descriptions of the sieges and battles, the unforgettable characters like Julian, Hypatia, Constantine, Athanasius, Teodoric, Belisarius, Mohamed, John II, Constantine XI, Bajacet or Cola di Rienzi, just to name a few. This is very serious reading but it is far more enjoyable and easier than I thought taking into account what I have read about this book before starting it.
The last thing that i can say is: more than 4000 pages and I would have enjoyed more.

An immense undertaking,both for author and reader!
As I've just finished reading the last volume of 'Decline and Fall...', after having spent at least the last 4 years reading it (on and off), it seems an appropriate moment to post a review of this monumental work of history.
I think the best way to sum it up is with the old saying "nothing worthwhile in life is ever easy". Starting with the Roman Empire at the height of its power and wealth in the second century AD, the author describes the long, slow decline of the Empire to the final dissolution of the Western empire in AD476, halfway through the work, to the fall of Constantinople (now Istanbul), the capital of the Eastern Roman empire, in 1453 which he takes to be the final end of the empire. Even then, there are a further three chapters on the state of Rome itself from the 12th to the 15th centuries.
Covering a period of around 13 centuries, and taking six volumes (of around 600 pages each), written in what often seems an excessively wordy and opaque style, this is emphatically not an easy or relaxing read. To make any progress at all requires concentration and effort, but if you are prepared to do this, I think you'll have done something which will remain with you for the rest of your life, and will immensely enhance your appreciation of anywhere you visit which had any association with the Roman Empire.
I read the unabridged hardback version of 'Decline and Fall', and, despite the cost, I would urge you to do the same, such is the quality of the books. They, like the experience of reading this stupendous work of scholarship, will last you a lifetime.