Woolf on Gibbon

"Gibbon is not merely a master of the pageant and the story; he is also the critic and the historian of the mind."

Happy birthday Virginia Woolf!

Power absolutely corrupts

Of all our passions and appetites, the love of power is of the most imperious and unsociable nature, since the pride of one man requires the submission of the multitude. In the tumult of civil discord, the laws of society lose their force, and their place is seldom supplied by those of humanity. The ardor of contention, the pride of victory, the despair of success, the memory of past injuries, and the fear of future dangers, all contribute to inflame the mind, and to silence the voice of pity. DF, i, 109.

The power of instruction...

is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous. DF, i, 109.

Power of the Roman generals.

The choice of the enemies of Rome was regularly decided by the legislative authority. The most important resolutions of peace and war were seriously debated in the senate, and solemnly ratified by the people. But when the arms of the legions were carried to a great distance from Italy, the generals assumed the liberty of directing them against whatever people, and in whatever manner, they judged most advantageous for the public service. It was from the success, not from the justice, of their enterprises, that they expected the honours of a triumph. In the use of victory, especially after they were no longer controlled by the commissioners of the senate, they exercised the most unbounded despotism. DF, i, 88.

Idea of a monarchy.

The obvious definition of a monarchy seems to be that of a state, in which a single person, by whatsoever name he may be distinguished, is intrusted with the execution of the laws, the management of the revenue, and the command of the army. But, unless public liberty is protected by intrepid and vigilant guardians, the authority of so formidable a magistrate will soon degenerate into despotism. The influence of the clergy, in an age of superstition, might be usefully employed to assert the rights of mankind; but so intimate is the connection between the throne and the altar, that the banner of the church has very seldom been seen on the side of the people. A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies, form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against the enterprises of an aspiring prince. DF, i, 85.

You've got mail

The advantage [enabled by the Roman highway system] of receiving the earliest intelligence, and of conveying their orders with celerity, induced the emperors to establish, throughout their extensive dominions, the regular institution of posts. Houses were every where erected at the distance only of five or six miles; each of them was constantly provided with forty horses, and by the help of these relays, it was easy to travel an hundred miles in a day along the Roman roads. The use of posts was allowed to those who claimed it by an Imperial mandate; but though originally intended for the public service, it was sometimes indulged to the business or conveniency of private citizens. DF, i, 77-78.

Universal spirit of toleration.

The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord. DF, i, 56.

Priorities

[...] [A]s long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters. DF, i, 35.

Britannia, ruled

The only accession which the Roman empire received, during the first century of the Christian era, was the province of Britain. [...] After a war of about forty years, undertaken by the most stupid, [7] maintained by the most dissolute, and terminated by the most timid of all the emperors, the far greater part of the island submitted to the Roman yoke. The various tribes of Britons possessed valour without conduct, and the love of freedom without the spirit of union. They took up arms with savage fierceness; they laid them down, or turned them against each other with wild inconstancy; and while they fought singly, they were successively subdued.

7. Claudius, Nero, and Domitian. A hope is expressed by Pomponius Mela, 1. iii. c. 6. (he wrote under Claudius) that, by the success of the Roman arms, the island and its savage inhabitants would soon be better known. It is amusing enough to peruse such passages in the midst of London.

DF, i, 33. [note in original]

Eco on Gibbon

"The illiteracy of Wall Street yuppies was not only due to an insufficient exposure to books but also to a form of visual illiteracy. [...] One could learn very well the story of the Roman Empire through movies, provided that movies were historically correct. The fault of Hollywood is not to have opposed its movies to the books of Tacitus or of Gibbon, but rather to have imposed a pulp and romance-like version of both Tacitus and Gibbon. The problem with the yuppies is not only that they watch TV instead of reading books; it is that Public Broadcasting is the only place where somebody knows who Gibbon was."

Happy birthday Umberto Eco!

Republican corruption

"The dominant intellectual tradition within which philosophic debate on civil society occurred was that of civic humanism, the political ideology formulated by Machiavelli in his seminal Discorsi (1519-21) [...]. Its central propositions were as follows. Men could be virtuous (in the non-moral sense of fulfilling their nature or telos) only in a republic of free, equal, arms-bearing and independent citizens. But the republic, as the history of Rome demonstrated, was prone to corruption which, paradoxically, flowed from its very virtue. The military success of the republic brought with it conquered territories and looted riches. With the former, the republic swelled into an empire; the spirit of patriotism was weakened, and the citizen militia was replaced by a professional army, garrisoned on the frontiers and thus remote, in a number of respects both physical and metaphorical, from the parent city. With the latter, citizens could be tempted permanently to discard their weapons, and to relinquish their political liberty in the enjoyment of material comfort, or 'luxury'." [D.W., xxvi-xxvii]

Social forces

"The historical problems which preoccupied the philosophic historian had, by the time Gibbon composed The Decline and Fall, resolved themselves into three distinct, if interrelated, areas. The first concerned civil society. What were the forces which built it up, and what were the forces which undermined it? [...] The second concerned barbarism. Was barbarism simply the antagonist of civil society, or were there points of contact and continuity between the two? [...] The third concerned religion. What were the social and political consequences of religious belief? To what causes could the rise of any particular religion be ascribed? Which human passions, appetites and faculties were nourished by religious belief, and which did it pervert and stifle?" [D.W., xxiii-xxiv]

The thing itself

I'm reading the 1995 Penguin Classics 3-volume edition (ISBN: 0713991240) edited by David Womersley, which includes the Vindication (1799).

Some numbers:
3 volumes
3,475 pages
7,920 footnotes
1,500,000 words, approximately (handwritten, of course)
111 page introduction by David Womersley [hereafter referred to as D.W.]
begun October 15, 1764
completed June 27, 1787

Introduction

During 2006 I'll be reading Edward Gibbon's monumental History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. I'll be using this blog as a commonplace to post quotes and thoughts about the books.