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Gibbon, Edward.
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 2.
(Audiobook, Abridged).
Hong Kong: Naxos Audiobooks, [1788, 1789] 1998.
ISBN 962-634-122-X.
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The “Volume 2” in the title of this work refers to the two
volumes of this audiobook edition. This is an abridgement of
the final three volumes of Gibbon's history, primarily devoted the
eastern empire from the time of Justinian through the fall of
Constantinople to the Turks in 1453, although the fractious kingdoms
of the west, the Crusades, the conquests of Genghis Khan and
Tamerlane, and the origins of the great schism between the Roman and
Eastern Orthodox churches all figure in this history. I understand
why many people read only the first three volumes of Gibbon's
masterpiece—the doings of the Byzantine court are, well,
byzantine, and the steady litany of centuries of backstabbing,
betrayal, intrigue, sedition, self-indulgence, and dissipation
can become both tedious and depressing. Although there are
are some sharply-worded passages which may have raised eyebrows
in the eighteenth century, I did not find Gibbon anywhere near
as negative on the influence of Christianity on the Roman Empire
as I expected from descriptions of his work by others. The
facile claim that “Gibbon blamed the fall of Rome on the
Christians” is simply not borne out by his own words.
Please see my comments on
Volume 1 for
details of the (superb) production values of this seven hour
recording. An Audio CD edition is
available.
June 2007