The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Works of Edward Gibbon
• Introduction 1
• Preface of the Author
• Advertisement to the Notes 1
• Advertisement to the First Octavo Edition
• Preface to the Fourth Volume of the Quarto Edition
• Introduction
• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Chapter I
• Chapter Ii
• Chapter Iii
• Chapter Iv
• Chapter V
• Chapter Vi
• Chapter Vii
• Chapter Viii
• Chapter Ix
• Appendix Additional Notes By the Editor
• 1.: Authorities
• 2.: Conquest of Britain — ( P. 4 and P. 45 )
• 3.: The Conquests of Trajan, and Policy of Hadrian — ( P. 7 )
• 4.: The Roman Army — ( P. 15 )
• 5.: The Roman Navy — ( P. 23 )
• 6.: The Provinces of the Roman Empire In 180 — ( P. 24 )
• 7.: Changes In South-eastern Europe Since Gibbon Wrote — ( Pp. 28 , 29 )
• 8.: Colonies and Municipia, Ius Latinum — ( P. 46 )
• 9.: The Mine of Soumelpour — ( P. 69 )
• 10.: The Constitution of the Roman Empire — ( Chapter Iii .)
• 11.: The Constitutional Significance of the Principate of Septimius Severus — ( Pp. 154-161 )
• 12.: Chronology of 238 — ( P. 229 )
• 13.: Authorities For Oriental Affairs — ( Chapter Viii .)
• 14.: The Zend Avesta — ( P. 253 Sqq. )

7.

CHANGES IN SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE SINCE GIBBON WROTE — (Pp. 28,

29)

Gibbon’s account of the political geography of the Illyrian lands brings home to us the changes which have taken place within the last century. When he wrote, Servia and Bulgaria were “united in Turkish slavery”; Greece herself was under the same bondage as well as Moldavia, Walachia and Bosnia; the Dalmatian coast was a province of the Venetian State. Since then (1) the Turkish realm in Europe has been happily reduced, and (2) Austria has advanced at the expense of Venice. (1) Now Greece and Servia are each a kingdom, wholly independent of the Turk; Bulgaria is a free principality, only formally dependent on the Sultan. Moldavia and Walachia form the independent kingdom of Roumania. Even a portion of Thrace, south of the Balkans, known as Eastern Roumelia, has been annexed to Bulgaria. Macedonia and the greatest part of Epirus are still Turkish. (2) All the Dalmatian coast, including Ragusa, belongs to Austria, but Antivari and Dulcigno belong to the independent Slavonic principality of Tzernagora or Montenegro (which was founded in the middle of the fifteenth century, preserved its independence against the Turks with varying success ever since, and in our own time played a conspicuous part in the events of 1876 to 1878, which so effectually checked the power of the Turk). Austria also acquired (by the treaty of Berlin, 1878) the protectorate of Bosnia and Herzegovina.