gibbons rise and fall of the roman empire

When the consul displayed the standard of the republic, each citizen bound himself, by the obligation of an oath, to draw his sword in the cause of his country till he had discharged the sacred duty by a military service of ten years. The temperate struggles of the patricians and plebeians had finally established the firm and equal balance of the constitution, which united the freedom of popular assemblies with the authority and wisdom of a senate and the executive powers of a regal magistrate. Honour, as well as virtue, was the principle of the republic the ambitious citizens laboured to deserve the solemn glories of a triumph and the ardour of the Roman youth was kindled into active emulation as often as they beheld the domestic images of their ancestors. The fidelity of the citizens to each other and to the state was confirmed by the habits of education and the prejudices of religion. A wiser Greek, who has composed, with a philosophic spirit, the memorable history of his own times, deprived his countrymen of this vain and delusive comfort, by opening to their view the deep foundations of the greatness of Rome. Now consented (such was the language of envious flattery) to resign her wings, to descend from her globe, and to fix her firm and immutable throne on the banks of the The inconstant goddess who so blindly distributes and resumes her favours, had The Greeks, after their country had been reduced into a province, imputed the triumphs of Rome, not to the merit, but to theįortune, of the republic. Selection is from Chapter XXXVIII: General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire Such a sustained investigation of this kind of event.

To its eventual collapse and fall, and this singular fact has exercised Of course, the greatness of Rome also led Rome: economic abundance, and international political structure and aĬommon language for many people. Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the RomanĮnlightenment found many of its virtues ready-made in the world of ancient

Gibbons rise and fall of the roman empire