The Decline and Fall was published in six volumes, with the first appearing in 1776, the next two in 1781, and the final three in 1788. The first three take the 'decline and fall’ up to the end of the Western Empire, with the last three describing the Eastern Empire to the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks. The final chapter of the work, LXXXI, examines the state of Rome in the fourteenth century, whilst the earliest chapters of the first volume depict the Empire at the time between 'the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus’ when the 'human race was most happy and prosperous’ and the 'golden age of Trajan and the Antonines’ (DF I: 103-4). The Decline and Fall is not read so much today as an historical account of the later Roman Empire but more as a work of literature, and product of the eighteenth century, and it is often studied as such (e. g., Craddock 1989; Pocock 1999a; Womersley 1988). The work was particularly popular in the later nineteenth and early twentieth century - a period of intense interest in, and preoccupation with, imperialism - which was also the time at which Roman archaeology was developing into a discipline recognisable today. Here, the influence of Gibbon’s work on studies of the Roman period and conceptualisations of the later Roman period are highlighted.
At the time when Gibbon was writing, the study of history was a hugely fashionable pursuit - especially the Roman period - and considered one of the highest forms of art (Ghosh 1997: 277) with the consequence that the eighteenth century saw a vast output of historical works (Dawson 1934: 159; McKitterick 1997: 164). Upon publication, Gibbon’s first volume was an immediate success and hailed a masterpiece amongst followers of literature and fashion.10 The first printing of i, ooo copies was sold out within a few weeks and led quickly to the production of second and third editions (Jordan 1976: 6). Gibbon became known as 'the Historian of the Roman Empire’ (Pocock 1999a: 292). His work remained in print throughout the nineteenth century (as it still is today). The members of the committee of the 1894 Royal Historical Society’s centenary celebrations of Gibbon’s death included not only eminent historians, such as Theodor Mommsen (1864; 1996, new English edition), but also public figures such as the Prime Minister Lord Rosebery, who admired Gibbon’s work greatly (McKitterick and Quinault 1997b: 9).
The image of Rome played an important part in the nineteenth - and early-twentieth-century social consciousness (Vance 1997), but because they had read Gibbon’s work, people at the time were also aware of the fate of the Roman Empire and wished to avoid a similar course of events in the British Empire. Satirical works, such as the Decline and Fall of the British Empire by Elliott Mills (1905; from Hingley 2000: 31-2),11 pretending to be a Japanese school textbook of the year 2005, show both the influence of the Roman Empire on contemporary thought and the role of Edward Gibbon in forming such views and opinions (ibid.; Vance 1997: 234). Another work, The Decline and Fall of the British Empire (Anon 1884), was said to have been written by an author called Edwarda Gibbon and published in New Zealand in the futuristic date of 2884 (Vance 1997: 234).12 The Roman Empire was central to contemporary views of the greatness of the British Empire, but the reasons for Rome’s decline, through Gibbon’s work, were also often used to highlight its problems. Influential figures reading Gibbon at the time included Winston Churchill (Quinault 1997: 317-18), who was 'immediately dominated both by the story and the style’ (Churchill 1941: 125);13 it was mainly a work for the wealthy and educated (cf. McKitterick and Quinault 1997b: 1).
It is unlikely, then, that Gibbon would not have been read and drawn upon by Roman archaeologists in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the impact of this has remained into the present day. Haverfield clearly drew upon Gibbon and indeed refers to his use of ideas from the work (1912: 12). Others who drew upon Gibbon include John Collingwood Bruce, in his book The Roman Wall (1851), where he agrees with 'Gibbon’s estimate of the character of the ancient Britons’ (ibid.: 27). His description of visiting Hadrian’s Wall mirrors Gibbon’s first encounter with remains in Rome (see Section 2.4): 'The most ardent lover of the olden times cannot but startle as he treads the deserted streets, or enters the unbarred portals of BORCIVICUS, and other cities of the Wall’ (ibid.: 31).
World History
