Title page from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 6

Part of: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 12 vols. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 6

The sixth volume of a 12 volume set of Gibbon’s magesterial history of the end of the Roman Empire, one of the greatest works of history written during the Enlightenment.

Key Quotes

Politics & Liberty

The rise of a city, which swelled into an empire, may deserve, as a singular prodigy, the reflection of a philosophic mind. But the decline of Rome was the natural and inevitable effect of immoderate greatness. Prosperity ripened the principle of decay; the causes of destruction multiplied with the…