Uncovering Writing

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was an extremely readable work that taught me many new things and also brought up memories of long-ago classes. When Gibbon is on, he is the master of prose and points. This work still has much to teach us and remind us. One thing that popped out was his belief that isolation and xenophobia hastened the ruins of Athens and Sparta (p. 55). Wise words for those in America, Britain and elsewhere, who would turn their eyes inward and create artificial barriers between members of the single human race.

Gibbon writes a great deal about religion, especially the rise of Christianity and its impact on the decline and eventual fall of the Empire. He frames his task as: “The theologian may indulge the pleasing task of describing Religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian. He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings” (p. 261).

Chapter VIII (XV-XVI in the original) is hardcore, discussing literally fanatic Christians and how much they actively stood apart from all others (p. 271, etc.) This included refusing to participate in civil and military service. Polytheists asked why these Christians shouldn’t have to contribute to the public welfare (p. 291). Virgil, Homer, poetry, music or even sayings in Greek or Latin, were seen as evil, demonic and corrupting (p. 272). Prior to the rise of this sect, Rome respected, or at least tolerated, many religions, incorporating foreign gods of conquered peoples into their own pantheon. Christians had no respect or toleration for any other religion but their own. Early Christians were not as persecuted as the later Church claimed (p. 325), though harsh repression did occur at the end of Diocletian’s reign (p. 326). Finally, under Gratian and Theodosius, Christianity was made the privileged religion and paganism was outlawed (p. 547).