Praetorians: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 5 Part 1
One of the things I love about the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is the artful way analysis and commentary are slipped in just where they seem to…
Pertinax: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 4 Part 3
Away from Rome things were going badly. In Gaul and Spain troops deserted and set up in bands to make a living by raiding the cities. When a belated crack…
Gladiator: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 4 Part 2
Commodus. Not a noble character. Gibbon thought that he was more weak than evil. But perhaps it isn't very meaningful to make judgements. After all, the early life of Commodus…
Commodus: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 4 Part 1
If you want to be an emperor, the easiest way is to be born into it.
Michael Foot RIP: The British Cicero
The whole History Books Review organisation was saddened to hear this week of the death of Michael Foot. In addition to his career as a politician he was of course also a historian of some note and his biography of Aneurin Bevan is on the list of books I intend to review. This particular book is interesting as an example of a history of his own time written by a participant in that history. This is quite a rare thing nowadays.
Marcus Aurelius: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 3 Part 4
Marcus Aurelius would probably have been remembered as a philosopher even if he had not gone into politics, a unique achievement.
At an early age, long before becoming the Emperor was even a remote possibility, Marcus embraced the philosophy of the stoics. It seems that from that time on he was first and foremost a philosopher and behaved accordingly even after he came to the throne. His Meditations, written in the winter campaigns on the Danube, are still popular today. Amazon offers several pages of differing editions of his work, all of which are frequently reviewed and which get almost universally positive ratings. He is quoted roughly once an hour on Twitter.
Hadrian and Antoninus: Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Chapter 3 Part 3
Hadrian had a tough act to follow, but he did hit the ground running. His only problem was that Trajan had never actually nominated him as his successor until he was on his deathbed – and even this was only witnessed by Plotina his pro-Hadrian widow.